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GIFT  OF 


LABOR,  CAPITAL  and  the  PUBLIC 


A  Discussion  of  the   Relations 
Between     Employes, 
Employers  and  the 
Public. 


240  PAGES,  CROWN  OCTAVO 

CLOTH  BOUND 

PRICE    ONE    DOLLAR 


PUBLIC  POLICY  PUBLISHING  CO. 
1;  CHICAGO 

1905 


#f/ 


Ohio    Qtalfi   rSol 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 
A    New    Emancipation    i 

English    and    American    Labor    Unions 2 

Militant    Stage    of    Trade    Unionism 7 

A   Plea  for  Fair   Play   Between  Capital  and  Labor 11 

The  Middle   Ground  in   Labor  Questions 13 

Natural   Checks   to   Labor  Union   Abuses 18 

Work ;    a    Grand    Ideal 35 

Unions   Educating  Unions 39 

Hatred   of  the  Rich 41 

Socialism    Destroys    Prosperity    43 

Australia's  Promise  and    Peril 44 

Labor  Unions  and   Socialism 48 

Who    Are    Responsible  ? 50 

John   Mitchell   on   Violence 52 

Trades    Unions    and    Industrial    Freedom   on    the    Pacific 
Coast    56 

Merit    Labor    Unions 60 

Sensible    Talk   to   Workers 62 

Enemies  of  Unionism    66 

The   Dawn   of   Reason   in   Labor   Problems 69 

Is   It   the   "Trusts"   or   the   Unions? 71 

Limits  to  the   "Closed   Shop" 79 

The    Crimes   of   Miners  and    Mine   Owners 81 

Colorado's   Evil   Days 84 

Some   Conditions   of   "Joy   in   Labor" 87 

The  Joy  of  Doing  One's   Part 88 

Good-will    in    Labor    Relations 90 

Force  and   Exclusion    Policies   Doomed 93 

No  Monopoly  of  Labor 95 

Failure    of    Compulsion 96 

A  Feature  of  the  Colorado  Situation  to  Be  Emphasized..  97 

Trade   Unionism   in    Public   Employment  Halted loi 

Whose    Fault    Is    This? 102 

iii 

281980 


Page. 
That   "Right    of   Contract"  Problem 103 

Employers'    Associations     105 

English    Unions    and    the    Open    Shop 107 

The    Open    Shop    Issue  Settling  Itself no 

Why  So    Many    Strikes  ? 113 

Labor    Strikes    Always    With    Us 117 

Boycott   Against    Employer  Perpetually    Enjoined 119 

Arbitration    vs.    the  Trade    Agreement 139 

Arbitration,    Conciliation,    Trade    Agreement 140 

Governor   Peabody's  Recital  of   Colorado's   Woes 153 

Governor   Peabody's    Defense •  •  •  I55 

Every   Workman  Should    Have    Opportunity   to   Win    on 
His   Merits     170 

A    Progressive    Step  in    Unionism 172 

Labors   Interest  in  Law  and  Order 174 

Industrial   Wastes  of  Labor   Wars 176 

Mutual   Loyalty    177 

Employer   and    Employe   an    Industrial    Unit 180 

The  Route   to   Trade  Prosperity 183 

Preference    for  Superior   Workmen 187 

Merit  Unions    191 

Enforcement  of  Law  the  First  Requirement 195 

Peaceable  Settlements    of    Strikers'    Demands 201 

National    Shop    Regulations 205 

A   National  Shop   Regulation  System   Is    Necessary 207 

The    Rights   of    Children 212 

Children  Should   Not  Be  Confined  in  Workshops 214 

The   Open   Shop    218 

Index  to  Authors  and  Articles 221 


IV 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  group  of  editorials  and  special  articles  brought 
together  in  this  volume  express  a  considerable  variety 
of  opinions,  but  with  substantial  unity  in  the  general 
point  of  view.  All  but  one  of  them  have  appeared 
during  the  year  1904,  and  all  in  the  columns  of 
Public  Policy.  All  of  them  have  to  do  with  the  rela- 
tions that  exist  and  those  that  ought  to  exist  between 
employes,  employers  and  the  public. 

In  writing  a  few  words  of  introduction,  by  the 
editor's  request,  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  entire  agree- 
ment with  all  the  views  expressed  or  all  the  conclu- 
sions reached ;  neither,  I  assume,  would  Mr.  Foote 
care  to  occupy  any  such  position  of  wholesale  indorse- 
ment. But,  if  I  understand  the  editorial  purposes  of 
Public  Policy  correctly,  its  aim  is  to  exert  a  broadly 
educational  influence,  and,  while  seeking  to  direct  that 
influence  along  certain  general  lines  of  "progressive 
conservatism,"  it  recognizes  that  public  opinion  is 
passing  through  a  formative  period  on  these  matters 
and  that  light  must  be  sought  from  many  sources  if 
the  truth  is  ever  to  stand  revealed. 

In  these  pages  will  be  found  many  of  Public 
Policy's  own  editorials,  many  selected  from  other 
representative  Journals,  and  a  number  of  special  arti- 


cles  dealing  much  more  in  detail  with  phases  of  the 
labor  problem  that  are  foremost  in  the  public  mind. 
If  the  impression  is  given,  from  these  discussions  as 
a  whole,  that  too  much  attention  is  paid  to  certain  ex- 
cesses and  abuses  that  have  cost  the  labor  movement 
so  heavily  in  the  last  few  years,  it  is  but  just  to  say, 
as  I  have  no  reason  to  doubt,  that  the  purpose  is 
wholly  friendly  and  in  no  sense  partisan  or  an- 
tagonistic. No  real  kindness  is  done  to  any  move- 
ment by  ignoring  or  smoothing  over  any  clearly  mis- 
taken tendencies  which,  if  unchecked,  would  swing  it 
off  into  the  byways  of  trouble  and  disaster. 

Personally,  I  am  even  more  drawn  to  the  method 
of  emphasizing  the  hopeful  tendencies,  the  better  side, 
of  any  movement  of  large  possibilities  for  good,  such 
as  trades  unionism,  in  the  belief  that  to  point  out  and 
keep  to  the  front  the  successes,  the  good  results  of 
wise  and  fair  dealing,  patient  and  temperate  conduct, 
will  more  and  more  impress  those  who  need  the  les- 
sons of  such  experience,  as  many  thousands  both  of 
workingmen  and  employers  do.  But  it  is  necessary 
that,  hand  in  hand  with  this  ''good  example"  educa- 
tion, should  go  an  equally  clear  exhibition  of  the 
suicidal  folly  of  any  policy  based  on  unreason,  mis- 
representation, misinformation,  prejudice,  bitterness 
and  passion.  Getting  men  to  look  upon  this  picture 
and  then  upon  that,  making  the  contrasts  vivid  and 
real,  is  probably  the  most  effective  method  in  the 
whole  process  of  educational  guidance  from  worse 
to  better  courses. 


VI 


The  progressive,  hopeful  side  is  by  no  means  ig- 
nored in  this  compilation.  Indeed,  the  darker  side 
could  be  made  a  minor  factor  but  for  the  unfortunate 
fact  that  in  the  last  two  or  three  years  we  have  had 
many  outbreaks  of  lawlessness  and  arbitrary  practices 
in  connection  with  labor  troubles  in  certain  quarters, 
which  cannot  be  ignored,  and  if  not  resisted  at  every 
step  might  easily  become  chronic.  There  is  reason 
to  believe  the  tide  is  now  running  the  other  way,  and 
it  is  none  too  early  for  all  good  citizens  to  be  at 
work,  building  a  sea  wall  of  moral  and  educational 
influence  against  its  possible  return. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  help  in  just  that 
work  by  addressing  itself  to  employers,  to  wage- 
earners,  and  to  that  "outside  public"  not  identified 
with  either  group,  seeking  to  bring  to  each  a  better 
understanding  of  the  viewpoint,  motives  and  peculiar 
problems  of  the  other.  The  desire  has  been,  in  mak- 
ing these  selections,  to  show  in  clear  and  simple 
fashion,  with  much  practical  illustration,  some  of  the 
underlying  principles  upon  which  fair  and  peaceable 
relations  between  employers  and  wage-earners  and 
the  community  at  large  must  rest.  It  is  impossible, 
of  course,  to  cover  the  whole  field  of  such  a  problem 
as  that  in  a  volume  prepared  on  the  present  plan ; 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  very  probable  that  the  ad- 
mittedly fragmentary  treatment,  the  popular  style, 
the  variety  of  topics  and  their  close  relation  to  actual 
happenings  familiar  to  everybody,  are  just  the  things 
to  give  it  the  direct,  practical  influence  among  work- 


VII 


ingmen  and  employers,  which  is  so  often  wanting  in 
more  exhaustive  and  carefully  wrought-out  treatises 
on  the  general  industrial  situation,  or  in  the  more  or 
less  abstract  outgivings  of  the  lecture  hall  and  the 
college  classroom. 

President  Eliot,  a  short  time  ago,  characterized  the 
problem  of  industrial  strife  as  ''this  greatest  of  public 
questions — far  greater  than  any  political  question  now 
before  the  country,  far  greater  than  any  probable  or 
discernible  question  of  foreign  warfare,  because  this 
warfare  is  at  home,  and  because  it  touches  in  the  most 
intimate  way  the  very  truest  interests  of  human 
society." 

Every  intelligent,  fair-minded  effort  to  lessen  this 
strife  by  making  clear  the  terrible  cost,  the  folly,  the 
needlessness  of  it  all,  and  the  conditions  (or  some  of 
them  at  least)  on  which  friendly  and  honorable  rela- 
tions depend,  has  an  important  part  to  play  in  the 
forward  movement  of  the  time. 

Hayes  Robbins. 

Winchester,  Mass.,  September  4,  1905. 


Vlll 


A  NEW  EMANCIPATION. 


The  indications  that  the  workers  of  this  country 
are  about  to  experience  the  blessings  of  a  new  emanci- 
pation are  growing  continuously.  This  emancipation 
is  in  character  the  same  as  that  for  which  there  has 
been  a  universal  and  ages-long  struggle.  It  is  an 
emancipation  of  a  kind  that  humanity  must  ever  seek, 
an  emancipation  from  the  errors  of  ignorance.  Even 
now  large  numbers  of  honest-hearted,  intelligent- 
minded  members  of  trades  unions  are  wondering  how 
it  became  possible  for  those  who  have  become  their 
leaders  to  lead  them  so  far  astray  from  correct  prin- 
ciples that  have  been  evolved  from  the  experience  and 
conflicts  of  all  human  existence.  They  will  find  the 
source  of  this  power  of  leadership  over  them  in  their 
abdication  of  their  reason,  done  when  they  accepted 
the  dictation  of  others  and  ceased  to  think  for  them- 
selves. Only  by  this  process  has  it  been  made  pos- 
sible to  their  leaders  to  require  them  to  commit  acts 
which  in  their  hearts  they  know  to  be  violations  of 
the  fundamental  principles  of  individual  liberty. 
Every  workingman  who  aids  in  depriving  another  of 
liis  right  to  work  on  such  terms  as  he  may  be  willing 
to  accept,  when  and  where  and  as  long  as  he  pleases, 
aids  in  forging  manacles  for  his  own  hands.  This 
fact  is  being  understood  by  thousands  of  workingmcn 
who  are  counting  the  losses  they  have  sustained 
through  obeying  the  dictation  of  ignorant  or  corrupt 

I 

1 


leaders.  It  has  always  been  true  that,  when  the  blind 
lead  the  blind,  both  fall  into  the  ditch. 

One  evil  of  the  situation  during  the  past  few  years 
has  been  the  cowardice  of  public  representatives  and 
officials  who  have  failed  to  enforce  laws  because  they 
wanted  to  win  the  votes  supposed  to  be  controlled  by 
organized  labor.  The  evil  was  really  deeper  than 
this ;  its  source  was  in  the  apathy  of  the  people.  There 
has  been  a  lack  of  healthy  and  vigorous  public  senti- 
ment that  would  give  to  every  public  representative 
an  official  reason  to  believe  that  for  every  vote  con- 
trolled by  organized  labor  that  might  be  diverted  from 
him  on  account  of  his  actions  in  honestly  and  intelli- 
gently enforcing  all  laws,  three  votes  would  be  at- 
tracted to  him  for  this  same  reason  from  the  great 
mass  of  honest-hearted,  fair-minded  people  who  con- 
stitute the  governing  majority  in  this  American  re- 
public. 

Emancipation  from  the  tyranny  of  ignorance  and 
corruption  is  to-day  the  true  war  cry  of  those  who  de- 
sire to  enjoy  their  rights  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness. 


ENGLISH  AND  AMERICAN  LABOR  UNIONS. 


editorial:  new  york  journal  of  commerce. 


The  statement  on  "Labor  Unions  and  British  In- 
dustry" issued  by  the  bureau  of  labor  at  Washington 
presented  in  an  instructive  way  the  progress  that  has 
been  made  through  experience  in  labor  unionism  in 

2 


\ 


England,  in  comparison  with  the  backward  state  of 
labor  organization  in  this  country.  The  author  of 
the  statement,  ]\Ir.  A.  Maurice  Low,  is  well  known 
here  as  a  writer  on  English  affairs  in  American  peri- 
odicals and  on  American  affairs  in  English  periodi- 
cals. His  information  and  opinions  were  derived 
from  both  employers  and  workingmen,  and  apparently 
fairly  reflect  the  consensus  of  views.  Though  it  may 
not  be  exact  to  say  that  "in  the  United  States  the 
unions  are  at  the  present  time  passing  through  the 
stage  which  is  part  of  the  history  of  unionism  in 
the  United  Kingdom  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,"  it 
is  evident  that  ''organized  labor"  in  England  has 
learned  many  lessons  by  experience  which  it  has  yet 
to  learn  in  this  country.  But  the  circumstances  and 
conditions  in  the  two  countries  have  been  in  most 
respects  so  widely  different  that  a  fair  comparison  is 
hardly  possible,  except  in  the  spirit  at  present  dis- 
played by  union  leaders.  Great  Britain  is  in  com- 
parison with  the  United  States  a  much  smaller,  more 
compact  and  more  densely  peopled  country,  with  less 
diversity  of  interests  and  employments,  but  much 
more  advanced  in  the  relative  development  of  mechan- 
ical and  manufacturing  industries.  Its  labor  unions 
have  grown  up  chiefly  in  populous  industrial  center^ 
and  have  been  composed  mainly  of  skilled  workmen 
in  "trades."  We  do  not  hear  of  teamsters'  unions 
and  striking  cabmen,  or  the  organization  of  excava-  ^ 
tors  and  other  unskilled  laborers  in  Great  Britain.J 
Moreover,  the  social  traditions  there  are  such  that 
workingmen   seem   to   consider  themselves   a   distinct 

3 


class  in  the  community,  destined  to  pass  their  lives 
as  wageworkers  generation  after  generation,  while 
the  theory  here  is  that  a  man  is  not  doomed  by  birth 
or  breeding  to  remain  in  any  class  if  he  has  the 
capacity  to  work  his  way  out  of  it. 

In  England  labor  organization  has  been  in  a  strict 
sense  trades  unionism,  and  the  purpose  has  been  to 
organize  the  competent  men  in  the  several  trades  so 
as  to  produce  a  solidarity  that  will  enable  them  to 
exact  terms  and  conditions  of  labor  that  were  deemed 
fair  in  each  trade,  and  to  obtain  legislation  consid- 
ered necessary  for  the  protection  of  their  rights  and 
interests.  Trade  organizations  have  not  been  so 
affiliated  or  confederated  as  to  give  one  control  over 
another  or  a  voice  in  its  management,  and  while 
there  has  been  a  bond  of  sympathy  and  common  pur- 
pose between  them,  they  have  not  been  wont  to  sup- 
port each  other  by  sympathetic  strikes  or  boycotts. 
They  have  been  little  addicted  to  using  coercion  or 
intimidation  to  bring  the  competent  men  of  a  trade 
into  its  unions,  and  so  far  as  they  formerly  resorted  to 
that  they  have  found  out  its  lack  of  wisdom  as  well 
as  of  justice,  and  have  abandoned  it.  In  their  early 
days  they  resorted  easily  to  strikes  which  were  not 
unattended  with  violence,  but  they  have  learned  the 
folly  of  that  and  in  recent  years  they  have  sought  to 
avoid  strikes  and  to  prevent  violence  and  violation  of 
law  as  a  matter  of  policy.  They  have  to  a  large  de- 
gree abandoned  the  attitude  of  antagonism  and  hos- 
tility to  employers,  or  to  capital,  and  sought  to  obtain 
agreements  on  the  ground  of  mutual  interest  by  "col- 

4 


lective  bargaining."  This  has  induced  a  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility and  a  respect  for  contracts  which  afford 
the  most  notable  contrast  with  the  spirit  of  some  of 
our  labor  unions.  The  result  is  a  much  better  sys- 
tem of  management  than  has  yet  been  developed  in 
this  country,  for  no  arbitrary  power  is  given  to  walk- 
ing delegates  or  business  agents,  but  difficulties  with 
employers  are  soberly  considered  by  executive  com- 
mittees which  are  made  up  of  the  most  capable  men 
in  the  unions.  They  have  learned  the  serious  con- 
sequences of  bitter  disputes  and  contests  and  the 
wasteful  loss  of  strikes,  and  endeavor  bv  every  rea- 
sonable means  to  avoid  them  and  to  settle  them  peace- 
fully when  they  cannot  be  averted.  These  gains  are 
largely  a  matter  of  the  last  few  years,  rather  than  of 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  one  of  the  most  impres- 
sive lessons  was  derived  from  what  is  known  as  the 
great  ''engineers'  ''  or  machinists'  strike,  which  did 
so  much  injury  to  British  industry. 

The  errors  of  English  trades  unions  have  been 
largely  economic,  and  through  their  discussions,  their 
friendly  conferences  with  employers  and  the  choice  of 
their  ablest  men  as  leaders  in  their  councils  and  repre- 
sentatives in  public  bodies,  including  the  British  Par- 
liament, they  have  been  learning  to  correct  these. 
But  some  of  them  linger,  and  our  labor  unions  are 
much  more  apt  to  copy  the  errors  than  to  accept  the 
lessons  of  experience.  In  former  times  they  made  the 
mistake  of  resisting  the  introduction  of  labor-saving 
machinery  and  improved  methods  for  the  increase  of 
production   on   the   ground   that   they   diminished   the 

5 


demand  for  labor.  This  is  one  of  the  faults  least 
imitated  in  this  country  on  account  of  the  larger  op- 
portunities for  work,  and  now  it  seems  to  be  outgrown 
in  England;  but  workmen  there  have  not  wholly  got 
over  the  cognate  error  of  restricting  production  by 
limiting  the  amount  to  be  done  within  certain  hours 
or  in  return  for  an  established  rate  of  wages.  It  is 
said  in  Mr.  Low's  statement  that  it  is  now  ''reluctantly 
admitted  by  the  most  intelligent  among  labor  leaders" 
that  "in  the  past"  the  trade  unionists  "penalized  the 
more  efficient  workman  to  the  extent  that  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  profit  by  his  superior  natural  ad- 
vantages, higher  skill  or  greater  industry,"  and  it  is 
implied  that  this  is  not  so  in  the  present.  But  a  work- 
man is  quoted  as  saying  thaf  "if  there  were  no  unions 
the  best  man  among  the  workmen,  the  man  who 
could  do  the  best  work  and  who  is  willing  to  work 
hardest,  would  get  along  best  and  make  the  most 
money,  just  the  same  as  he  does  in  any  other  class, 
but  the  union  won't  let  us  do  that."  That  is  the  most 
grievous  industrial  and  social  error  of  the  British 
trades  unions,  and,  strangely  enough,  it  is  the  one 
most  insisted  upon  by  some  of  the  unions  in  this 
country,  where  every  man  is  supposed  to  be  free  to 
avail  himself  of  his  capacity  and  his  opportunity  to 
rise  in  the  world.  The  respect  in  which  labor  unions 
here  lag  deplorably  behind  those  in  Great  Britain 
is  in  their  intolerance  toward  non-union  men,  their 
use  of  lawless  and  iniquitous  methods,  such  as  at- 
tacks upon  person  and  property,  the  sympathetic 
strike  and  the  boycott,  and  this  is  due  to  a  leadership 

6 


which  is  distinctly  inferior  in  abihty  and  character 
to  that  of  the  British  trades  unions.  But  except  at 
a  few  points,  in  large  cities  and  manufacturing  and 
mining  centers,  unionism  is  a  much  smaller  factor  in 
the  industrial  life  of  this  country. 


MILITANT  STAGE  OF  TRADE  UNIONISM. 


EDITORIAL  :        WALL  STREET  JOURNAL. 


A  report  of  very  great  interest  and  importance  has 
been  made  to  the  bureau  of  labor  at  Washington  by 
A.  Maurice  Low,  in  regard  to  labor  unions  and  Brit- 
ish industry.  There  has  been,  from  time  to  time,  much 
written  on  this  subject  from  the  various  standpoints, 
and  the  belief  has  very  generally  prevailed  that  no 
small  part  of  the  decay  in  British  industry,  to  which 
leading  English  statesmen  have  recently  referred,  and 
which  has  led  to  the  Chamberlain  program  of  a  pro- 
tective tariff,  has  been  due  to  the  exactions  of  the 
trade  unions.  Mr.  Low's  report  goes  to  show  that 
while  this  is  in  large  measure  true,  it  is  a  passing  con- 
dition, and  that  the  labor  unions  of  Great  Britain  have 
entered  into  another  stage  of  development  and  are 
reaching  the  point  where  they  realize  the  necessity  of 
co-operation  with,  rather  than  war  upon,  capital. 

Mr.  Low  reports  that  the  labor  unions  when  started 
in  England  soon  became  a  militant  society,  whose  main 
object  was  to  better  the  condition  of  its  members  at 
the  expense  of  employers,  and  without  regard  for  the 

7 


rights  of  employers  and  the  equities  involved.  The 
labor  leaders  were  men  who  were  trying  to  embitter 
the  relations  between  members  of  the  unions  and  the 
employer.  That  era,  he  says,  has  passed.  The  fight- 
ing trade  union  leader  has  been  succeeded  in  England 
by  a  leader  who  is  no  less  courageous,  but  who  is  cer- 
tainly more  intelligent.  This  new  leader  has  given 
time  and  thought  to  the  study  of  industrial  questions, 
and  comprehends  that  if  the  wage-worker  is  to  im- 
prove his  condition  it  is  essential  for  him  to  maintain 
friendly  relations  with  his  employer,  to  make  strikes 
as  few  as  possible,  and  to  do  nothing  foolishly  to  re- 
strict the  conduct  of  business  or  increase  the  cost  of 
production,  and  thereby  help  a  foreign  competitor. 
Mr.  Low  admits  that  the  appeal  to  force,  the  strike 
on  one  hand  and  the  lockout  on  the  other,  is  by  no 
means  an  archaic  weapon  in  England  to-day,  but  both 
sides  recognize  the  wastefulness  and  folly  of  resort- 
ing to  force  and  endeavor  by  every  means  possible  to 
secure  a  settlement  of  difficulties  by  an  appeal  to  rea- 
son and  the  employment  of  methods  of  conciliation. 

Mr.  Low  apparently  conducted  his  investigation 
with  care  and  impartiality  and  with  patient  investiga- 
tion of  both  sides  of  the  labor  problem.  His  report 
contains  a  mass  of  details  tending  to  sustain  the  conclu- 
sion which  he  has  reached. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  his  conclusion,  if  it  is,  as 
it  appears  to  be,  in  accordance  with  the  facts,  is  of 
immense  significance  to  this  country.  The  United 
States  has  been  able  to  attain  a  commanding  industrial 


position  in  the  world  by  means  of  methods  far  in 
advance  of  those  adopted  in  older  countries.  Our 
capitalists  have  been  ready  to  adopt  every  possible 
improvement  and  to  substitute  at  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity and  regardless  of  expense  the  new  machine  or 
tool.  They  have  built  expensive  plants,  only  to  aban- 
don them  as  soon  as  constructed  because  new  inven- 
tions or  methods  have  been  discovered  which  would 
cheapen  production.  Moreover,  there  has  been  in  this 
country  a  larger  use  made  of  human  muscle  and  hu- 
man brain,  so  as  to  get  out  of  them  the  largest  possible 
results  in  the  shortest  space  of  time.  Consequently, 
in  spite  of  our  protective  tariff  and  the  high  rates  of 
wages  paid  in  this  country,  we  have  been  able  to  place 
the  products  of  our  manufacturers  in  many  quarters 
of  the  globe  in  competition  with  the  poorer  paid  labor 
of  Europe.  This  has  been  the  result,  in  large  part, 
of  the  fact  that  the  American  factory  and  mill  have 
been  from  top  to  bottom  a  thinking  machine.  Not 
merely  the  financier  supporting  it,  and  the  managers 
controlling  it,  but  every  grade  of  workman  down  to 
the  lowest  have  been  encouraged  to  think,  and  a  pre- 
mium has  been  paid  upon  suggestions  of  improvement. 
Now  in  England  the  conditions  of  the  past  have  been 
very  different  from  those  prevailing  in  the  United 
States,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  England  has  fallen 
behind  in  the  great  contest  for  commercial  supremacy. 
In  England  the  capitalist  has  not  expected  or  encour- 
aged the  average  workman  to  think,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  average  workman,  through  his  trade  unions, 

9 


has  persistently  antagonized  the  introduction  of  new 
machinery  and  labor-saving  devices. 

The  significant  thing,  however,  is  that  England  has 
learned  her  folly.  Her  statesmen  have  waked  up  to  the 
realization  that  something  must  be  done  to  prevent 
further  decay.  Her  employers  are  realizing  the  ad- 
vantages of  collective  bargaining,  which  is  one  of  the 
great  results  of  trade  unionism,  and  are  beginning  to 
introduce  many  American  methods.  The  trade  unions 
have  begun  to  realize  their  folly  in  antagonizing  ma- 
chinery and  in  pursuing  a  policy  of  war  against  capital. 

Now  in  the  United  States,  immense  as  have  been 
our  strides  in  other  respects,  we  are  still  in  the  pre- 
liminary or  middle  stages  of  the  labor  problem.  We 
are  undergoing  an  experience  which  in  England,  ac- 
cording to  Mr.  Low,  has  been  passed.  Here,  in  spite 
of  many  efforts  at  conciliation,  some  of  which  have 
been  very  successful,  the  attitude  of  capital  and  labor 
is  that  of  two  opposing  armed  bodies.  We  are  in  the 
militant  stage  of  the  labor  problem.  England  has 
passed  that  stage  and  has  entered  into  that  of  concilia- 
tion and  co-operation.  The  significance  of  this  state- 
ment is  very  plain,  and  the  lesson  it  teaches  is  vital. 
Unless  the  United  States  intends  to  lose  the  advan- 
tage which  it  has  gained,  capital  and  labor  must  stop 
making  war  upon  each  other,  and  while  retaining  the 
advantages  of  organization  on  both  sides,  shall  sub- 
stitute conciliation  and  co-operation  for  acts  of  war. 


lO 


A  PLEA  FOR  FAIR    PLAY    BETWEEN    CAPI- 
TAL AND  LABOR. 


Under  the  title  of  ''The  Middle  Ground  in  Labor 
Questions,"  the  editor  of  the  Wall  Street  Journal  gives 
publication  to  a  letter  from  James  Kilbourne,  com- 
menting upon  the  advice  given  to  workingmen  by 
Samuel  Gompers  to  resist  any  attempt  to  reduce  their 
wages  or  to  increase  their  hours  of  labor.  This  advice 
was  given  by  Mr.  Gompers  in  his  annual  address  be- 
fore the  national  convention  of  the  Federation  of  La- 
bor, at  which  time  he  was  a  candidate  for  re-election 
as  president  of  the  organization.  When  workingmen 
are  imposed  upon  by  being  urged  by  a  trusted  leader 
to  follow  such  a  policy,  which  is  indefensible  from  an 
economic  standpoint,  prudence  and  common  sense  not 
only  demand  that  unnecessary  and  unreasonable  re- 
ductions in  wages  should  be  avoided,  they  demand  that 
information  shall  be  supplied  to  both  employers  and 
employes  from  which  they  can  form  correct  opinions. 

There  are  extremists  in  both  classes.  Some  employ- 
ers are  as  eager  to  get  the  largest  possible  amount  of 
work  for  the  least  possible  pay  as  some  employes  are 
to  get  the  largest  possible  pay  for  the  least  possible 
work.  The  vocation  of  employer  or  of  employe  does 
not  of  itself  change  nor  sanctify  human  nature.  But 
there  is  a  science  of  economy  that  is  being  gradually 
learned  which  shows  that  the  line  of  greatest  efficiency 
does  not  run  through  the  highest  peak  nor  the  lowest 

II 


abyss  of  developed  energy,  but  through  the  hours  of 
average  load.  Mr.  Kilbourne  well  says :  "There  is  a 
wonderful  difference  in  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the 
output  of  contented  and  that  of  discontented  labor." 

Workingnien  are  as  honest  minded  as  any  other  class 
of  people.  If  they  are  correctly  informed  their  judg- 
ments and  their  actions  will  be  just.  A  sense  of  just 
treatment  is  the  source  from  which  contentment  must 
spring.  The  economic  value  of  contentment  is  the  les- 
son many  employers  have  yet  to  learn.  On  the  other 
hand,  appreciation  of  just  treatment  is  the  attitude  that 
is  necessary  to  induce  just  treatment.  Satisfied  em- 
ployers are  as  essential  to  healthful  industrial  condi- 
tions as  contented  workmen.  When  employers  saga- 
ciously anticipated  coming  events  by  voluntarily  in- 
creasing wages  no  labor  leader's  voice  was  raised  to 
urge  workingmen  to  resist  such  procedure.  This  dis- 
position on  the  part  of  employers  to  be  fair  entitles 
them  to  the  confidence  of  their  employes  who  are  able 
to  comprehend  that  a  reduction  of  wages  may  be  as 
fair  as  an  increase  of  wages.  The  question  of  fairness 
is  determined  by  conditions,  not  by  the  act  of  increas- 
ing or  reducing  wages.  A  correct  knowledge  of  con- 
ditions is  fundamentally  necessary  to  a  correct  judg- 
ment. The  expense  of  disseminating  this  knowledge  is 
the  cost  of  the  economic  efficiency  of  contentment. 
That  it  is  a  good  investment  is  known  by  all  who  have 
given  it  a  fair,  practical  test. 


12 


THE  MIDDLE    GROUND    IN    LABOR    QUES- 
TIONS. 


editorial:    wall  street  journal. 


The  following  letter  received  from  the  president  of 
the  Kilbourne  &  Jacobs  Manufacturing  Company  of 
Columbus,  Ohio,  a  large  employer  of  labor,  is  so 
fine,  so  just  and  so  wise  that  we  commend  it  to  every 
employer  of  labor  in  this  country : 
"The  Editor  of  the  Wall  Street  Journal : 

"A  clipping  from  your  paper  containing  an  editorial 
nuder  the  caption  'Wages  and  Prosperity'  has  just 
come  to  my  hands  from  a  friend  in  your  city. 

"iVfter  quoting  Mr.  Gompers,  president  of  the 
x\merican  Federation  of  Labor,  as  saying,  'Working 
people  should  resist  any  attempt  to  reduce  their  wages 
or  to  increase  their  hours  of  labor,'  the  editorial  con- 
trasts with  that  statement  an  account,  given  by  me  in 
an  address  before  the  national  convention  of  employ- 
ers and  employes  at  Minneapolis,  of  the  generous  ac- 
tion of  our  employes  during  the  panic  of  1893.  The 
contrast  drawn  would  have  been  more  just  to  ]\Ir. 
Gompers  if  the  further  fact  stated  in  my  address  had 
been  mentioned,  viz.,  that  the  wages  of  the  employes 
had  never  been  lowered. 

''While  the  position  of  INFr.  Gompers  that  anv  and 
every  reduction  of  wages  should  be  resisted  by  work- 
ingmen  is,  as  you  say,  under  existing  conditions,  in- 
defensible from  an  economic  standpoint,  prudence  and 

13 


common  sense  demand  that  unnecessary  and  unrea- 
sonable reductions  in  wages  should  be  avoided. 

'There  is  a  middle  ground  which  should  be  taken  in 
the  interest  of  both  capital  and  labor.  If  a  renewal 
of  the  widespread  labor  troubles  which  last  year  re- 
sulted so  disastrously  to  both  can  this  year  be  pre- 
vented, there  is  nothing,  now  apparent,  to  prevent  a 
prosperous  business  year  for  this  country. 

"Whether  this  can  be  done  depends  at  least  as  much 
upon  employer  as  upon  employe.  The  greater  danger 
is  that  many  of  the  former,  smarting  under  the  exac- 
tions of  organized  labor  last  year,  will,  either  in  retalia- 
tion or  through  greed,  seek  to  take  undue  advantage  of 
the  changed  conditions  and  make  reductions  in  wages 
beyond  those  which  necessity  compels. 

"Unquestionably  the  reduction  in  the  volume  of  bus- 
iness must  lead  to  lower  prices  for  commodities  be- 
fore there  can  be  a  change  for  the  better,  but  it  is  nei- 
ther necessary  nor  advisable  for  the  interests  of  capital 
that  the  entire  reduction  should  be  borne,  as  is  too 
often  the  case,  by  labor  alone.  Labor  will  uncomplain- 
ingly bear  its  just  share,  but  any  general  attempt  to 
cast  an  undue  portion  of  the  burden  upon  it  will  be 
firmly  resisted. 

"The  average  American  workingman  is  both  intel- 
ligent and  fair.  He  recognizes  present  conditions  as 
well  perhaps  as  does  the  average  employer,  and  will  as 
cheerfully  do  his  just  part  in  meeting  them  as  his  em- 
ployer has  done  his  in  sharing  with  him  the  gains  of 
more  prosperous  times.  Reductions  in  wages  have 
already  been  quietly  accepted  by  the  employes  of  many 

14 


large  manufacturing  companies,  especially  those  man- 
ufacturing for  export.  There  are  fully  as  many  in- 
stances of  this,  I  think,  as  of  manufacturers  who  three 
years  ago,  at  the  beginning  of  the  boom,  voluntarily 
advanced  wages. 

''Whether  working  people  will  resist  attempts  to 
reduce  their  wages  this  year  will  depend  not  so  much 
upon  what  Mr.  Gompers  or  other  labor  leaders  may 
advise,  as  upon  the  justice  of  the  demands  that  are 
made  upon  them  and  in  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
presented. 
f  "As  I  said  in  the  address  from  which  you  quoted, 
'Nearly  thirty  years'  experience  as  a  manufacturer  has 
convinced  me  that  American  workingmen  (as  a 
class)  do  not  ask  of  those  in  whose  fairness  they  have 
confidence  more  than  they  believe  to  be  justly  due 
them,  and  that  when  an  employer  wishes  to  do  all  that 
justice  demands  and  his  necessities  permit  and  ap- 
proaches them  and  deals  with  them  as  men  having  the 
same  feelings,  the  same  objects  in  life  and  the  same 
rights  as  himself — there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  estab- 
lishing amicable   relations  between  them.' 

''Your  caution  and  advice  to  workingmen  is  good 
and  timely.  Will  you  not  supplement  it  with  an  appeal 
to  employers  to  take  no  undue  advantage  of  the  fact 
that  labor  is  now  the  'seeker'  and  not  the  'sought  ?' 

"Upon  them — their  wisdom,  moderation  and  fair- 
mindedness — depends  more  than  upon  the  working- 
man  at  this  time  whether  we  are  to  have  industrial 
peace  or  war ;  whether  this  is  to  be  a  prosperous  bus- 
iness year  or  one  of  commercial  disaster.     Let  them, 

15 


ill  the  necessary  reduction  of  prices  to  which  you  re- 
fer, cut  their  profits  for  the  time  being  a  little  more 
proportionately  than  the  wages  of  their  employes,  and 
they  and  the  country  at  large  will  profit  by  their  so 
doing. 

"There  is  a  wonderful  difiference  in  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  the  output  of  contented  and  that  of  dis- 
contented labor.  Whichever  we  are  to  have  this  year 
is  largely  for  the  employer  to  decide. 

"Permit  me  to  add  that  I  agree  with  Mr.  Gompers 
in  objecting  to  an  increase  in  the  hours  of  labor.  What 
has  been  gained  by  labor  in  the  direction  of  shorter 
hours  is  a  gain  for  civilization,  for  'happy  homes, 
without  which  neither  virtue  nor  religion  thrives.'  It 
should  be  firmly  held,  not  in  the  interest  of  working 
people  alone,  but  of  the  community  at  large.  Very 
respectfully,  James  Kilbourne." 

Comment  upon  this  letter  is  scarcely  necessary.  It 
is  not  the  utterance  of  a  mere  theorist,  but  of  a  practi- 
cal man  of  business,  who  has  for  many  years  had  deal- 
ings with  labor  upon  a  large  scale,  and  we  do  not  re- 
call any  recent  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the 
labor  problem  which  is  so  convincing  as  this. 

There  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  war  between  capi- 
tal and  labor.  The  militant  stage  of  the  labor  contro- 
versy is  the  stage  of  disaster  and  panic.  Prosperity  is 
possible  only  with  moderation  and  conciliation.  The 
trades  unions  which  seek  to  gain  control  of  the  indus- 
tries of  the  country  by  establishing  an  absolute  monop- 
oly of  labor,  and  the  organizations  of  capital  which 
seek  to  rule  by  a  sort  of  divine  right  of  capital,  and 

i6 


regard  the  organization  of  labor  as  in  the  nature  of  a 
mutiny  upon  ship,  or  of  rebelHon  against  constituted 
authority,  are  both  wrong,  and  must  both  recede  from 
their  position  unless  they  would  destroy  each  other  in 
a  never-ending  conflict. 

The  death  of  Senator  Hanna,  who  devoted  the  last 
years  of  his  life  to  the  work  of  the  National  Civic  Fed- 
eration, is  a  good  time  to  emphasize  this  fact.  As  Sen- 
ator Hanna  said,  the  grandest  thing  that  could  be  ac- 
complished in  this  country  would  be  to  bring  to 
fruition  the  plans  of  the  federation  to  make  great  labor 
disputes  impossible.  Now  is  the  time  when  the  em- 
ployers of  labor,  by  wise  and  considerate  action,  might 
do  much  to  prevent  further  warfare  between  capital 
and  labor.  Because  the  labor  unions  went  to  excess 
when  they  were  largely  in  control  of  the  situation, 
the  demand  for  labor  being  greater  than  the  supply, 
there  is  all  the  more  reason  now  why  employers  should 
display  a  spirit  of  fairness  and  conciliation,  the  supply 
of  labor  being  larger  than  the  demand,  and  the  em- 
ployers are  therefore  in  control  of  the  situation.  This 
is  the  danger  of  such  organizations  as  that  headed  by 
Mr.  Parry,  namely,  that  they  will,  by  striking  at  or- 
ganized labor,  make  the  relations  between  capital  and 
labor  more  bitter  and  irreconcilable  than  ever. 

As  Mr.  Kilbourne  says,  there  is  a  middle  ground 
which  should  be  taken  in  the  interests  of  lx)th  parties, 
and  his  appeal  to  employers  to  take  no  undue  advan- 
tage of  the  fact  that  labor  is  now  the  seeker  and  not 
the  sought  is  timely  and  wise.  The  trouble  is  that 
many  employers  believe  that  an  attitude  of  conciliation 

17 


on  their  part  Is  a  sign  of  weakness,  and  that  the  only 
way  to  deal  with  labor  is  by  keeping  it  as  far  as  possi- 
ble in  a  state  of  complete  subjection.  Whether  this 
is  a  year  of  prosperity  depends  very  largely  upon  the 
way  with  which  employers  deal  with  this  subject. 
We  have  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Kilbourne  that  reduc- 
tions of  wages  have  already  been  quietly  accepted  by 
the  employes  of  many  large  manufacturing  companies, 
and  it  seems  as  if  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  there 
would  be  no  difficulty  in  adjusting  rates  of  wages  to 
existing  business  conditions,  if  the  matter  was  adjusted 
in  a  spirit  of  fairness  and  an  adequate  explanation 
given  of  the  reason  for  the  changes. 


NATURAL  CHECKS  TO  LABOR  UNION 

ABUSES. 


BY    HAYES    ROBBINS^    WINCHESTER^    MASS. 


Many  people  very  readily  assume  that  to  protest 
against  the  evils  in  the  labor  movement  is  to  imply 
that  all  the  wrong  is  on  the  labor  side  and  that  the 
capitalists  or  employers  are  therefore  without  fault. 
The  assumption  is  absurd,  of  course.  It  happens  to 
be  a  habit  of  the  public  mind  and  conscience  to  con- 
centrate, for  the  most  part,  on  one  abuse  or  wrong 
at  a  time.  Now  it  is  political  corruption ;  now  it  is 
"trusts"  or  trust  excesses;  now  it  is  "graft;"  just  at 
present  it  is  the  misdirection,  in  certain  ways,  of  new 
and  unaccustomed  power  in  the  hands  of  labor  or- 
ganizations.    And  many  of  the  very  blunders  of  labor 

i8 


union  policy  can  be  traced  without  much  difficulty  to 
equally  arrogant  and  arbitrary  practices  of  which  em- 
ployers have  been  guilty  at  various  times,  and  against 
which  organized  workingmen  have  devised  weapons 
of  similar  caliber. 

On  the  plan  of  "one  at  a  time,"  however,  it  is 
worth  while  to  pick  out  from  the  mass  of  disputation 
and  recrimination,  charge  and  countercharge,  just 
what  are  the  real  abuses  in  the  organized  labor  move- 
ment at  the  present  moment,  freely  granting  that  not 
all  the  blame  for  these  should  by  any  means  be 
shouldered  upon  that  movement,  and  that  there  are 
evils  in  the  other  camp  quite  as  capable  of  working 
vast  mischief  to  the  community. 

THE  MOST  HOPEFUL  FEATURE  IN  THE  SITUATION. 

It  will  be  found  that  to  each  of  these  excesses  of 
labor  unionism  a  natural  limit  or  check  is  set  in  the 
very  constitution  of  modern  society.  The  very  fact 
that  the  most  serious  danger  elements  in  our  indus- 
trial life  are  not  external  and  beyond  reach,  but  are 
part  and  parcel  of  our  domestic  conditions,  is  the 
most  hopeful  feature  in  the  situation.  Under  condi- 
tions of  freedom,  with  the  thousand  and  one  inter- 
acting influences  of  modern  civilization  at  work,  the 
very  strife  brought  on  by  any  new  abuse  in  time 
establishes  a  limit  beyond  which  that  abuse  cannot 
go — very  much  as  a  cannon  ball,  which  might  easily 
shatter  one  solid  block  of  stone,  simply  cannot  force 
its  way  through  the  millions  of  particles  in  a  sand- 
bank. 

19 


What  some  of  these  natural  checks  are  may  be 
shown  best  in  connection  with  the  particular  abuses 
around  which  most  of  the  contest  wages,  such  as  vio- 
lence during  strikes,  unreasonable  exactions  and  arbi- 
trary trespass  upon  employers'  functions,  the  "ex- 
tended" boycott,  and  rigid  discrimination  against  non- 
union workingmen. 

(l)     PUBLIC    SENTIMENT^    PRINCIPAL    RESTRAINT    UPON 

VIOLENCE. 

On  the  rule  of  ''an  eye  for  an  eye,"  of  course,  the 
direct  check  to  force  is  force.  But  it  would  be  a  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  this  is  the  only  or  even  the  prin- 
cipal restraint  upon  violence  in  industrial  disputes. 
Back  of  the  local  police,  back  of  state  militia,  back  of 
national  troops,  lies  that  broad  and  deep  reservoir  of 
public  sentiment  which  in  the  first  instance  provided 
by  law  for  repression  of  lawlessness  and  outrage,  and 
nowhere  permanently  tolerates  it.  And  this  sentiment 
is  even  more  powerful  in  prevention  of  what  might  be 
than  in  repression  of  what  is.  The  consciousness  of 
popular  resentment,  distrust,  suspicion  and  hostility 
has  forestalled  more  rowdyism  and  riot,  probably, 
than  armed  force  has  been  required  to  put  down. 

This  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  the  day  of  such 
ferocious  terrorism  as  that  in  Pittsburg,  1877,  2-nd  Chi- 
cago, 1894,  apparently,  has  gone  by.  It  is  this  great 
background  of  order-loving  and  order-enforcing  senti- 
ment that  has  impressed  itself  upon  the  more  intelli- 
gent, discerning  labor  leaders  and  is  forcing  more 
leaders  of  that  type  to  the  front.     The  effect  of  this 

20 


influence  crops  out  further  in  the  strenuous  denials  of 
any  share  in  strike  violence,  on  the  part  of  organized 
labor.  Virtually  all  of  it  is  charged  to  loafers  and 
rowdies  having  no  connection  with  the  labor  movement. 
In  part  this  is  true,  of  course,  but  the  defense  has  not 
usually  made  a  very  strong  impression  upon  public 
opinion.  The  finding  of  the  arbitration  commission 
in  the  coal  strike,  that  the  irresponsible  minority 
among  the  strikers  was  largely  involved  in  the  ''dis- 
order and  lawlessness,"  including  "riot  and  blood- 
shed," in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  some  of  the  leaders, 
probablv  agrees  with  the  prevailing  impression  of 
the  public  in  most  of  the  cases  where  violence  has 
been  a  part  of  labor  controversies.  The  denials, 
however,  at  least  show  that  the  need  is  realized  of 
overcoming  this  belief  and  the  hostile  judgment  that 
goes  with  it. 

LABOR     ON     THE     AGGRESSIVE — CAriTAL    ON     THE     DE- 
FENSIVE. 

The  labor  movement  in  large  measure  depends  upon 
public  sympathy  for  its  ultimate  success.  Capital,  on 
the  other  hand,  chiefly  demands  to  be  let  alone.  It 
has  always  regarded  its  methods  and  interests  as 
purely  its  own  affairs.  To  a  great  extent  it  is  on  the 
defensive.  But  labor  is  on  the  aggressive.  Whatever 
headway  it  makes  is  tedious  and  painful  at  best,  and 
it  is  coming  to  realize  more  fully  that  it  cannot  fight 
against  public  sentiment  and  the  tremendous  reserve 
force  of  capital  combined.  It  knows  that  the  greatest 
strike  in  recent  years  was  won  through  the  co-opera- 

21 


tion  of  public  sympathy,  and  in  proportion  as  it  ap- 
preciates the  danger  of  ahenating  this  powerful  ally 
the  influences  within  the  movement  making  for  or- 
derly self-restraint  and  respect  for  public  and  private 
rights  will  strengthen.  Here  is  the  natural  check  to 
violence.  It  is  more  effective  than  guns,  and  the 
campaigns  of  labor  can  never  be  waged  successfully 
in  disregard  for  it. 

(2)    TRESPASS   UPON    EMPLOYERS^    FUNCTIONS. 

So  long  as  w^e  have  employers  and  wage-earners — 
or  so  long  as  productive  industry  is  carried  on  by  pri- 
vate enterprise — the  employer  must  necessarily  retain 
the  power  of  supervising  and  enforcing  the  conditions 
of  employment  accepted  and  agreed  upon  at  any  given 
time.  Even  under  socialism  the  managing  head  of  an 
industrial  department  could  not  do  less,  except  upon 
the  risk  of  making  his  department  a  charge  on  the  pub- 
lic revenues  by  reason  of  less  and  less  efficient  produc- 
tion. And  to  the  extent  that  this  prevailed  it  would,  of 
course,  compel  the  socialistic  state  to  reduce  in  like 
measure  the  distribution  of  product  throughout  the 
community. 

The  employes,  under  accepted  conditions  of  private 
employment,  may  and  indeed  ought  to  seek  to  im- 
prove the  conditions  of  service,  and,  where  other 
measures  fail,  may  refuse  to  work,  either  individually 
or  in  a  body,  until  the  conditions  are  so  improved. 
But  the  right  to  supervise  the  daily  conduct  of  their 
own  work,  decide  for  themselves  whether  the  rules  in 
force  at  any  given  time  shall  be  respected,  or  to  deter- 

22 


mine  what  productive  processes  shall  be  employed  or 
business  policies  pursued,  cannot  be  included  among 
the  employes'  functions.  Where  the  survival  of  the 
industry  itself  depends  upon  its  ability  to  meet  the 
ever- varying  emergencies  and  exigencies  of  competi- 
tion these  things  must  be  under  the  constant  control 
of  the  policy-directing  head.  Being  vital  to  the  profit- 
ableness or  solvency  of  the  enterprise,  they  cannot 
safely  be  taken  out  of  the  hands  responsible  for  that 
profitableness  or  solvency.  They  are  not  among  the 
debatable  conditions  of  employment.  To  exercise  these 
powers  the  wage-workers  must  be  their  own  employers 
and  assume  the  obligations  and  responsibilities  of  busi- 
ness management,  with  all  the  risks  of  loss  and  failure. 
They  cannot  permanently  enjoy  the  one  and  escape  the 
other. 

PREVENTING    THE    USE    OF    IMPROVED    MACHINERY. 

These  truisms  sound  commonplace,  but,  unfortu- 
nately, they  are  very  often  transgressed  principles  in 
present  industrial  relations.  The  employer's  preroga- 
tive of  introducing  improved  processes  or  instruments 
of  production  has  been  fiercely  resisted,  and  is  still  re- 
sisted in  many  quarters  to-day.  So  recently  as  1902 
an  officer  of  the  International  Association  of  Machin- 
ists issues  a  statement  claiming  for  that  organization 
the  credit  of  having  saved  its  members  more  than 
two  million  dollars  in  wages,  through  having  ''pro- 
vented  the  introduction  of  the  two-machine  system  in 
137  shops,  employing  9,500  men,"  and  "prevented  the 
introduction  of  the  piecework  system  in  shops  employ- 

23 


ing  4,500  men."  And  this  after  a  century  of  experience 
of  the  expansion  in  both  wages  and  amount  of  employ- 
ment through  the  economizing  of  waste  by  improved 
methods,  and  consequent  widening  of  the  field  of  in- 
dustry ! 

SUPERVISION   OF  SHOP  WORK. 

Supervision  of  shop  work  has  been  virtually  taken 
out  of  the  employers'  hands  in  many  industries,  each 
shop  choosing  its  own  foreman.  Even  the  right  to 
discharge  for  cause  is  often  resisted  under  threat  of 
strike.  The  employer  is  unable  in  many  cases  to  use 
his  plant  in  such  a  way  as  to  yield  the  greatest  econ- 
omy in  production,  because  of  rules  which  assign  more 
men  to  a  given  machine  or  process  than  are  required, 
and  limit  the  output  per  day  or  per  man.  These  prac- 
tices are  not  universal,  fortunately,  and  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  many  of  them  originally  grew  out  of  un- 
fair exactions  and  "forcing"  on  the  part  of  employ- 
ers.    Much  less  justification  for  them  exists  to-day. 

UNION   SUPERVISION   RESULTS   IN   FAILURE. 

The  natural  limits  or  checks  here  are  very  close  at 
hand.  They  are  strictly  economic ;  public  opinion  need 
not  figure  at  all.  Many  establishments  in  which  profits 
are  easy  and  a  wide  margin  exists  for  possible  losses 
have  surrendered  various  manag'ement  functions  in 
this  way,  and  do  not  appear  to  suffer  serious  loss,  so 
long,  at  least,  as  prosperous  conditions  continue.  But 
the  principle  once  allowed,  the  way  is  prepared  for 
pushing  even  the  successful  enterprise  into  more  and 
more  serious  complications  until  disaster  is  fairly  in 

24 


Ai^ 


sight.  The  faikire  of  the  Morse  shipyards  and  iron 
works,  of  New  York  City,  last  September,  is  an  ilkis- 
tration  in  point.  Here  was  one  of  tlie  largest  estab- 
lishments  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  operating  a  two- 
million  dollar  plant  and  employing  2,200  men.  In 
1902,  the  company  having  contracts  on  hand  to  com- 
plete several  oil-tank  steamers  within  a  stated  period, 
the  labor  interests  seized  the  opportunity  virtually  to 
take  the  management  of  the  operating  department  into 
their  own  hands.  Persistent  loafing  became  the  rule 
under  foremen  of  their  own  choosing,  and  whenever 
new  foremen  were  appointed  and  ordered  to  discharge 
the  loafers  a  strike  would  be  declared  to  compel  dis- 
charge in  turn  of  the  offending  foremen,  and  so  on, 
until  the  establishment  was  compelled,  step  by  step,  to 
curtail  operations,  reduce  its  force,  decline  new  con- 
tracts and  finally  go  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver.  The 
limit  the  unions  reached  in  this  case  was  either  to 
forego  employment  entirely  or  accept  it  in  heavily  re- 
duced volume,  under  the  management  of  the  courts  and 
upon  strictly  defined  conditions. 

The  test  of  hard  times  puts  an  end,  perforce,  to 
wrangling  over  these  points.  It  brings  the  relations 
of  management  and  employment  back  to  the  normal 
economic  basis  upon  which  successful  private  industry 
rests.  In  the  course  of  further  experience  and  bet- 
ter understanding  of  that  experience,  it  is  reasonable 
to  expect  that  organized  labor  will  come  to  prefer  the 
more  stable  and  permanent  conditions  of  employment 
possible   where  the  necessary  means  of  survival   and 

25 


success  under  competitive  conditions  remain  in  the 
employers'  hands.  The  alternative  limit,  of  always 
possible  and  often  certain  economic  failure,  is  final. 

(3)      THE     BOYCOTT PRIMARY    AND     SECONDARY. 

The  coal  strike  commission  in  its  report  drew  a  use- 
ful distinction  between  what  it  termed  the  "primary" 
and  the  ''secondary"  boycott.  It  might  sometimes  be 
un-Christian,  but  the  legal  right  was  not  denied  of 
"any  man  or  set  of  men,  voluntarily  to  refrain  from 
social  intercourse  or  business  relations  with  any  per- 
sons whom  he  or  they,  with  or  without  good  reason, 
dislike."  This  is  the  primary  boycott.  "But  when  it 
is  the  concerted  purpose  of  a  number  of  persons  not 
only  to  abstain  themselves  from  such  intercourse,  but 
to  render  the  life  of  their  victim  miserable  by  persuad- 
ing and  intimidating  others  so  to  refrain,  such  pur- 
pose is  a  malicious  one  and  the  concerted  attempt  to 
accomplish  it  is  a  conspiracy  at  common  law,  and  mer- 
its and  should  receive  the  punishment  due  to  such  a 
crime."  This  is  the  secondary  boycott,  and  it  is  at 
just  this  point  that  the  legitimate  passes  over  into  the 
criminal.  It  is  extending  the  conspiracy  by  geometrical 
progression,  tending  to  make  it  an  irresistible  instru- 
ment of  ruin,  wholly  incompatible  with  the  institutions 
of  justice  upon  which  the  life  of  government,  or  of 
society  itself,  rests. 

employers'  blacklist. 

The  employers'  blacklist  is  so  similar  to  the  boycott 
in  method  that  it  easily  suggests  itself  as  the  natural 
offset,  or  natural  check,  to  the  boycott.     This  is  true 

26 


^ 


only  in  a  very  general  sense.  The  two  measures  are 
virtually  the  same  weapon  in  opposing  hands,  but  they 
are  not  specially  directed  against  each  other.  The  boy- 
cott is  applied  to  a  business  concern  for  any  number 
of  causes,  seldom  for  the  particular  reason  that  it  has 
engaged  in  blacklisting.  Similarly,  the  blacklist  is  ap- 
plied to  the  individual  workingmian  for  a  score  of  rea- 
sons, rarely  on  the  single  ground  that  he  has  taken 
part  in  a  boycott.  Both  weapons  are  used  wherever 
available,  when  used  at  all. 

NATURAL    CHECK    TO    SECONDARY    BOYCOTT      SENSE    OF 
COMMON    INJURY. 

The  natural  check  to  the  secondary  boycott  is  the  ac- 
cumulating sense  of  common  injury  in  the  community 
subject  to  these  outrages.  In  proportion  as  the  provo- 
cation becomes  keener^  the  common  resentment  and  in- 
dignation coalesce  into  a  compact  resisting  body,  the 
first  effect  of  which  is  that  the  firms  or  persons  threat- 
ened with  ruin  if  they  do  not  join  the  attack  upon 
some  other  person  or  firm  will  gain  courage  from  the 
knowledge  of  this  broad  background  of  public  support 
and  take  united  action  to  defy  the  conspiracy.  And 
if  this  is  not  enough  public  sentiment  can  and  will  ex- 
press itself  through  the  medium  of  government,  which 
is  a  perfectly  natural,  because  necessary,  resort  of  the 
major  power  in  the  community  to  define  and  protect 
the  conditions  of  social  order.  In  proportion  as  the 
social  consciousness  loses  faith  in  less  drastic  measures 
it  will  strengthen  its  defenses  here. 

Fortunately,  there  is  reason  to  hope  that  this  par- 

^^7 


^ 


ticular  labor  union  measure  will  retire  within  lawful 
limits  before  the  extreme  penalties  are  reached.  It  is 
true,  the  boycott  in  the  primary  form  is  in  common 
use  in  many  ways,  among  all  classes  and  for  a  large 
variety  of  social,  industrial  and  political  purposes ;  its 
employment  by  organized  labor  is  as  legitimate  as  any 
of  these  others,  and  is  stoutly  defended  by  nearly  all 
labor  leaders.  It  is  a  hopeful  circumstance,  however, 
that  while  the  ''secondary"  boycott  is  often  resorted  to 
in  practice,  there  is  much  less  disposition  to  come  out 
and  defend  this  extended  application  to  disinterested 
non-combatants.  Mr.  Mitchell  frankly  condemned  it 
in  his  testimony  before  the  coal  strike  commission. 
His  may  have  been  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness, 
but  we  need  not  discredit  the  reserve  intelligence  of 
organized  American  workingmen  by  assuming  that  it 
will  be  the  only  voice  or  that  its  warning  will  not  be 
heard  in  time. 

(4)     DISCRIMINATION    AGAINST    NON-UNION    MEN. 

The  Civic  Federation,  in  one  of  its  recent  monthly 
reviews,  put  into  brief  form  the  argument  upon  which 
organized  labor  justifies  the  ''closed  shop" — that  is,  the 
shop  in  which  only  union  members  are  employed  or 
permitted  to  be  employed.  "They  reason  that  in  order 
to  enforce  the  scale  of  wages  and  hours  it  is  necessary 
that  every  workingman  be  subject  to  discipline  if  he 
works  below  the  scale,  and  that  they  cannot  know 
whether  he  is  actually  working  below  the  scale  unless 
he  is  a  member."  Undoubtedly  they  cannot,  but  that 
fact  does  not  necessarily  justify  the  practice  of  exclu- 

28 


sion.  If  the  conditions  are  actually  made  poorer  by 
reason  of  the  non-union  man's  presence,  there  is  justifi- 
cation, of  course,  for  refusing  to  work  with  him,  but 
we  have  reached  a  condition  to-day  where  that  result 
is  by  no  means  the  rule.  In  fact,  it  cannot  be  proved 
that  maintenance  of  a  high  wage  scale  depends  upon 
the  "closed  shop."  Tlie  trend  of  wages  was  upward 
when  the  open  shop  was  universal,  as  well  as  since.  In 
many  special  cases,  without  doubt,  advantage  has  been 
taken  of  the  introduction  of  non-unionists  to  weed  out 
union  men  and  eventually  grade  down  the  wage  and 
other  conditions  in  the  shop,  but  the  penalties  of  that 
policy  have  been  demonstrated  so  often  that  nuich  less 
disposition  exists  to  apply  it  to-day. 

The  right  cannot  and  should  not  be  questioned  to 
use  every  peaceable  means  of  persuasion,  even  of 
social  ostracism,  to  induce  a  workingman  to  become  a 
member  of  a  union,  but  to  make  the  employer  an  un- 
willing instrument  of  compulsion  against  that  work- 
ingman, to  demand  the  workingman's  discharge  on 
penalty  of  a  strike  in  the  employer's  shop  or  boycott 
against  his  goods,  or  both,  on  the  sole  ground  that  the 
offender  does  not  choose  to  join  a  purely  voluntary 
organization,  is  simply  to  establish  a  workingmen's 
blacklist  against  workingmen,  similar  in  effect  to  the 
employers'  blacklist,  to  the  moral  iniquity  of  which  the 
trade  unionist  is  keenly  alive.  Where  the  non-unionist 
is  objected  to  for  other  reasons,  such  as  incompetence, 
or  that  lie  is  a  ''strike-breaker,"  discrimination  is  only 
to  be  expected ;  but  it  is  time  enough  to  ai)ply  the 
"workingmen's  blacklist"  when  these  specific  facts  are 

29 


known  in  the  specific  case,  or  when  evidence  appears 
that  the  non-unionist  is  being  used  as  a  tool  to  drive 
out  his  organized  fellow  workers. 

But  the  present  practice  is  to  apply  the  discrimina- 
tion anyway,  on  the  mistaken  assumption  that  employ- 
ers universally  and  all  the  time  are  watching  for 
chances  to  lower  the  wage  rates  and  generally  to  ''op- 
press" labor.  And  the  policy  is  enforced  to  an  extent 
and  in  ways  so  certain  to  alienate  the  sympathy  which 
naturally  goes  out  to  labor  in  its  efforts  for  improve- 
ment, that  the  wiser  labor  leaders,  no  doubt,  would  ere 
this  have  taken  positive  stand  against  it  had  not  the 
practice  become  so  deep  rooted,  especially  in  this  coun- 
try. Even  in  England,  where  unionism  is  perhaps  at 
its  maximum  strength,  much  less  stress  is  laid  upon 
the  "closed  shop"  idea  than  here,  and  less  bitterness 
exhibited  toward  the  non-union  workingman. 

ABSURD   DISCRIMINATIONS. 

What  can  be  expected  of  public  sentiment  in  such 
cases,  for  example,  as  the  refusal  of  musical  unions 
to  perform  in  company  with  foreign  artists  making 
professional  tours  of  a  few  months  only,  in  this  coun- 
try, unless  these  visitors  become  members  of  the  local 
unions  in  the  cities  or  towns  they  may  visit?  Or 
what  of  a  strike  ordered  because  a  member  of  the  firm 
undertook  to  sharpen  tools  in  his  own  shop  without  be- 
coming a  member  of  the  union,  admission  to  the  union 
even  having  been  refused  him  until  he  should  serve 
eighteen  months  at  the  trade?  Or  what  shall  be  said 
of   the    growing   custom   of   discriminating   not   only 

30 


against  non-union  men,  but  against  members  of  rival 
unions  performing  the  same  or  similar  work,  and  this 
even  to  the  extent  of  such  a  colossal  absurdity  as  the 
order  of  the  International  Plasterers'  Union  that  all 
repairing  or  filling  in  of  openings  between  the  various 
sections  of  plaster  statues  and  groups  for  the  St. 
Louis  exposition  must  be  done  by  common  plasterers 
instead  of  by  selected  experts  from  the  St.  Louis 
Modelers'  and  Sculptors'  Union? 

LIMITS  TO  THE  CLOSED  SHOP. 

We  need  not  go  outside  the  industrial  field  to  find 
the  ultimate  checks  to  such  practices,  securely  in- 
trenched as  they  are  in  some  quarters.  Discrimination 
against  rival  unions  means  the  house  divided  against 
itself,  which  cannot  stand.  Both  kinds  of  discrimina- 
tion are  encountering  a  resistance  which  may  compel 
an  "open  shop"  regime ;  not  the  non-union  shop,  not 
the  union  shop,  but  the  shop  open  to  both  upon  equal 
terms.  And  this,  it  must  be  confessed,  is  the  natural 
and  logical  basis  of  industrial  employment.  It  is  mor- 
ally superior  to  any  other,  so  long,  at  least,  as  employ- 
ers do  not  prevent  it  from  remaining  so  by  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  free  relation  to  discriminate  on  their 
own  part,  against  union  men,  and  lower  the  standards 
of  employment. 

If  the  open  shop  can  be  made  a  union  shop  by  peace- 
able persuasion  no  objection  need  or  ought  to  be 
raised,  and  there  is,  in  fact,  little  doubt  that  the  gen- 
eral arguments  in  favor  of  unionism,  by  their  very  ob- 
viousness, combined  with  the  preference  of  many  cm- 

31 


ployers,  such  as  President  Tuttle  of  the  Boston  & 
I\Iaine  Railroad,  for  dealing  with  unions  and  union 
representatives  rather  than  with  masses  of  employes  as 
individuals  or  as  a  "mob,"  will  serve  to  maintain  a 
steady  preponderance  of  union  influence  wherever  that 
influence  now  controls,  and  sufficient  to  extend  it,  prob- 
ably all  the  more  effectively,  from  the  larger  public 
sympathy  and  more  harmonious  relations  with  employ- 
ers due  to  the  final  getting  rid  of  arbitrary  and  unjust 
practices. 

The  open  shop  is  the  leading  plank  in  all  the  recently 
formed  employers'  associations,  notably  of  the  Citizens' 
Industrial  Association  of  America.  It  will  be  most 
salutary  for  the  union  cause  if  it  recognizes  the  mean- 
ing of  these  forces  in  time  to  prevent  them  from 
crystallizing  into  an  attack  upon  unionism  per  se,  as 
they  now  show  positive  signs  of  doing.  One  evidence 
at  least  that  the  dangers  of  forcing  this  issue  too  far 
are  coming  to  be  appreciated  was  the  decision  of 
organized  labor  not  to  make  a  political  attack  upon 
the  President  for  his  refusal  to  unionize  the  govern- 
ment printing  office  by  discharging  a  non-union  em- 
ploye. Here,  at  least,  the  limits  were  too  prominent 
to  ignore,  public  sentiment  outside  the  unions  being 
practically  unanimous  on  the  issue  in  question. 

LOGICAL  PLACE  FOR  LABOR  ORGANIZATIONS. 

It  should  not  be  inferred  for  an  instant  that  these 
abuses  and  excesses  in  the  labor  movement  are  to  be 
regarded  as  its  leading  features,  or  that  they  are  not 
meeting  opposition   in   greater   or   less   degree  within 

3^ 


the  ranks  of  the  unions  themselves.  The  place  of  labor 
organization  in  the  economic  fabric  of  society,  as  the 
counterpart  of  capitalistic  organization,  is  entirely  log- 
ical. It  is  even  necessary  to  a  just  balance  of  power 
and  benefit  in  the  community.  To  the  extent  that  it 
stands  for  the  uplift  of  the  wage-earning  millions,  by 
humane,  orderly  and  just  methods,  it  ought  to,  and 
will,  command  the  cordial  sympathy  of  all  clear-think- 
ing and  fair-minded  citizens.  But  it  is  precisely  in 
order  that  it  may  stand  for  these  ideals,  by  these  meth- 
ods, and  so  command  this  necessary  sympathy  and 
support  that  reform  of  certain  abuses  which  have 
become  prominent  is  now  of  pressing  importance. 

Will  these  abuses  be  abandoned  before  the  natural 
limits  that  have  been  pointed  out  are  reached?  That 
is  another  story.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  while  many 
of  them  are  already  being  modified,  few  of  them  will  be 
wholly  surrendered  until  organized  labor  is  convinced 
that  the  employers  have  no  intention  of  repeating  the 
earlier  tactics  of  subtly  undermining  unionism 
wherever  and  whenever  the  bars  are  let  down  in  any 
quarter.  The  boycott,  the  strike,  the  closed  shop — all 
are  war  measures,  and  will  hardly  be  abandoned  until 
the  treaty  of  peace  is  signed  and  obeyed.  And  any 
treaty  of  peace  which  abolishes  lawlessness,  the  boy- 
cott and  the  closed  shop  will  have  to  include  also  the 
employer  measures  of  blacklisting,  of  insidious  wage 
reduction  and  discrimination  against  union  working- 
men. 

In  the  declarations  by  prominent  employers  within 
the  last  few  years,  backed  up  by  wise  and  liberal  deal- 

33 


ings  with  workingmen,  there  is  evidence  of  a  new 
recognition  of  the  economic  and  moral  right  of  labor 
organization,  and  of  the  broad  advantages  of  such  or- 
ganization, not  only  from  the  workingmen's  stand- 
point, but  even,  in  certain  respects,  from  the  em- 
ployers'. Formerly  the  universal  attitude  was  bitter 
hostility  to  the  very  suggestion  of  such  associations. 
There  is  a  new  recognition,  too,  of  the  wisdom  and 
economy  of  high  wages,  apart  from  any  philanthropic 
considerations.  The  most  important  wage  increases 
during  the  present  era  of  prosperity  have  been  volun- 
tary on  the  employers'  part.  This  change  of  senti- 
ment and  practice,  in  so  many  quarters,  even  in  the 
face  of  the  abuses  that  have  cropped  out  in  union 
policy,  is  perhaps  the  surest  ground  of  confidence  on 
labor's  part  that  the  extreme  measures  it  has  consid- 
ered necessary  thus  far  may  be  safely  modified  to  a 
legitimate  basis. 

UNIONS      FREE      FROM      ABUSES      ARE      RESPECTED     AND 

RECOGNIZED. 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  if  these  excesses 
are  so  modified  employers  would  care  to  invite  their 
certain  revival  in  full  force  by  throwing  themselves 
anew  into  an  intolerant  regime  of  wage-cutting,  black- 
listing and  union  fighting.  The  unions  which  are  the 
freest  from  abuses  and  arbitrary  policies,  such  as  those 
in  the  railroad  service,  are  not  only  not  browbeaten 
and  taken  advantage  of  by  the  employers,  but  are 
notably  respected  and  recognized,  and  probably  are  of 
the   largest   usefulness   to   their    members.      Further, 

34 


while  the  open  shop  principle  was  virtually  established 
throughout  a  large  part  of  the  steel  and  iron  industry 
as  a  result  of  ihe  great  strike  of  1901,  evidence  has 
yet  to  be  offered  that  advantage  has  been  taken  of  this 
new  status  either  to  break  up  the  ironworkers'  unions 
or  to  "grind  down"  the  wage  scale.  If  reductions 
have  come  in  connection  with  periods  of  depression 
in  that  industry  it  is  safe  to  say  they  would  have  come 
anyway,  even  if  every  steel  plant  in  the  country  had 
been  a  closed  shop. 

The  labor  movement  ought  not  to  invite  a  struggle 
upon  these  hopeless  issues.  They  are  alien  to  its  true 
ideals,  unnecessary  to  their  accomplishment,  wrong 
in  principle,  often  costly  in  practice.  A  natural  check 
is  set  to  each  of  them.  The  future  of  organized  labor 
lies  in  quitting  these  by-paths  leading  out  to  impass- 
able rocks  and  massing  its  forces  along  the  main  lines 
of  progress  toward  a  larger  welfare  and  fairer  con- 
ditions of  industrial  peace. 


WORK:   A  GRAND  IDEAL. 


editorial:    wall   street   journal. 


The  world  is  outgrowing  the  idea  that  work  is  a 
curse,  a  punishment,  or  even  a  discipline.  Some  have 
even  gone  to  the  other  extreme  and  regard  their  work 
as  a  play,  a  sport,  a  game.  They  enjoy  to  the  full  the 
stress  and  suspense  of  the  conflict,  and  the  thrill  of 
victory.  Their  work  takes  the  place  which,  with  other 
men,  is  filled  by  wife,  home,  love,  and  the  delights  of 

35 


friendship,  of  books  and  of  art.  Work  absorbs  every 
faculty  of  their  being  and  it  satisfies  every  ambition 
and  passion.  Modern  business  is  on  so  large  a  scale 
that  it  is  not  strange  that  some  find  it  the  gratification 
of  every  desire.  They  work  not  so  much  for  gain  as 
for  very  joy  of  working. 

This,  it  is  needless  to  say,  is  an  advance  upon  the 
old  conception  of  work  as  a  curse.  It  is  far  better  to 
regard  work  as  a  sport  than  as  slavery,  as  something 
to  be  eagerly  sought  after,  than  as  a  thing  to  be 
avoided.  But  there  is  still  a  higher  conception  of  work, 
which  a  few  have  adopted  as  the  guiding  principle  of 
their  lives,  and  which,  as  a  grand  ideal,  will  ultimately 
prevail  with  all. 

This  conception  of  work  is  that  it  is  part  of  a  divine 
plan.  In  working  a  man  performs  his  highest  destiny 
and  makes  himself  a  partner  with  his  Creator  in  the 
civilization  of  the  world.  Work  from  this  point  of  view 
becomes  an  act  of  religion,  a  solemn  function.  It  as- 
sumes something  of  the  character  of  a  sacrament.  The 
man,  therefore,  who  works  the  hardest  and  achieves 
the  most  is,  in  this  sense,  the  most  religious  man. 
In  working  such  a  man  may  enjoy  the  delights  of 
achievement  and  the  fruits  of  success,  but  above  all 
will  be  the  feeling  that  he  is  an  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  an  almighty  power  for  the  furtherance  of  a  divine 
plan,  and  if  in  working  he  gains  wealth,  it  is  only  to 
hold  it  as  a  trustee. 

Now  such  a  conception  of  work  as  this  if  generally 
adopted  would  transform  the  world.  It  would  give  a 
new  charm,  a  new  spirit,  a  new  dignity  to  work.    Sue- 

36 


cess  would  no  longer  be  regarded  with  suspicion  and 
fear.  The  promotion  of  great  enterprises  and  the  con- 
trol of  great  properties  would  have  much  of  the  same 
significance  as  now  attaches  to  some  supreme  act  of 
worship  or  heroism.  The  man  who  built  a  canal,  or- 
ganized an  industry,  established  a  great  railroad  sys- 
tem, developed  a  mine,  invented  a  new  machine,  or 
discovered  a  new  principle  of  science,  would  be  as 
trulv  a  priest  and  a  minister  as  one  who  served  at  the 
altar.  Hatred  of  wealth  would  be  an  act  of  impiety, 
while  the  truest  infidel  would  be  not  so  much  one  who 
refused  to  believe,  as  one  who  refused  to  work,  for 
work  would  be  the  sublimest  expression  of  faith. 

There  would  be  no  labor  problem  under  such  a  con- 
ception as  that.  Let  the  world  accept  the  idea  that 
work  is  the  one  thing  that  unites  us  closest  to  the  Cre- 
ator, that  it  is  in  the  highest  sense  an  act  of  devotion, 
and  there  would  be  no  question  of  hours  and  wages  of 
labor.     Even  the  humblest  worker  would  be  ennobled. 

The  digging  of  a  ditch,  the  sweeping  of  a  street,  the 
feeding  of  a  furnace  with  coal,  the  cleaning  of  a 
sewer,  would  have  stamped  upon  it  the  seal  of  divinity. 
There  would  be  no  such  division  as  capital  and  labor. 
There  would  be  no  classes.     All  would  be  workers. 

This  is  a  mere  dream,  it  will  be  said.  But  it  is  a 
grand  ideal,  toward  which  the  world  is  making  prog- 
ress slowly,  it  is  true,  but  surely. 

It  has  been  only  forty  years  since  slavery  was  abol- 
ished in  this  country.  Yet  what  progress  has  been 
made  in  that  time,  the  world  over,  toward  this  ideal. 
What  a  new  dignity   now  attaches  in  work.      It   was 

37 


not  many  years  ago  when  work  seemed  degrading, 
when  the  ''gentleman"  was  the  man  of  leisure.  Now 
the  millionaire  idler  has  become  an  object  of  scorn. 
The  line  once  drawn  between  business  and  the  pro- 
fessions has  disappeared.  The  social  ostracism  of 
"trade"  no  longer  exists.  Our  new  leaders  are  cap- 
tains of  industry.  Our  young  men  are  becoming  engi- 
neers, are  qualifying  themselves  to  be  experts  in  dif- 
ferent lines  of  manufacturing.  They  are  not  afraid  to 
soil  their  hands,  to  wear  overalls  or  to  use  tools.  The 
man  who  does  things  has  become  a  type  of  the  age. 

A  manager  of  one  of  our  largest  railroads  only  a 
few  years  ago,  on  graduating  from  college,  found, 
although  he  moved  in  polite  society,  that  the  only 
employment  he  could  secure  was  as  a  cleaner  of  tools 
used  by  other  workmen  in  a  steel  mill. 

*T  will  clean  the  tools  well,"  he  said,  as  he  went  to 
his  humble  employment;  and  in  doing  so  he  unlocked 
the  door  of  success. 

Something,  therefore,  has  been  gained.  It  is  only 
a  step  further  to  the  grand  idea  of  work,  as  an  act  of 
worship,  a  divine  employment,  a  share  in  the  sublime 
scheme  of  creation. 

Granted  that  the  step  seems  a  far  one,  and  the  time 
in  which  the  race  may  reach  the  ideal  is  long,  still 
each  may  at  least  adopt  the  ideal  for  himself,  and  thus 
lighten  his  labor,  dignify  his  daily  task  and  impart  a 
superb  motive  to  his  whole  life.  But  he  should  make 
sure  that  his  tools  are  clean,  and  that  he  does  not 
justify  means  to  the  end.  It  is  not  so  much  the  thing 
done  as  the  doing  it  that  constitutes  this  ideal.     Re- 

38 


suits  do  not  count  that  are  achieved  with  tools  and 
methods  that  are  not  clean.  A  man  who  has  achieved 
much  has  really  lost  all  unless  he  has  worked  along 
the  lines  of  justice  and  truth. 


UNIONS  EDUCATING  UNIONS. 


editorial:    Chicago  chronicle. 


When  certain  union  teamsters  who  had  been  di- 
rected by  their  officers  to  engage  in  no  sympathetic 
strikes  went  to  a  Chicago  establishment  at  which  a 
strike  was  in  progress  they  were  received  by  walking 
delegates,  educational  committees  and  wrecking  crews 
and  their  adherents  in  a  manner  usually  reserved  for 
the  class  of  American  citizens  known  as  "scabs." 

Some  of  these  loyal  unionists  were  dragged  from 
their  wagons  and  walked  on.  Some  of  them  received 
bricks  behind  the  ears.  Some  were  bruised  with  clubs. 
All  were  greeted  with  derisive  cries,  epithets  and 
threats.  They  would  have  been  fit  subjects  for  the 
hospital  and  the  morgue  if  a  detachment  of  police  had 
not  been  near  at  hand  and  disposed  to  rescue  them 
from  their  assailants. 

We  wonder  if  the  union  men  who  had  this  experience 
will  learn  anything  from  it.  As  they  salve  their 
wounds  and  nurse  their  bruises  will  it  occur  to  them 
that  violence  is  the  worst  of  all  methods  to  settle  a 
dispute?  Will  it  dawn  upon  their  battered  sensibilities 
that  if  a  mob  may  be  permitted  to  run  things  in  one 

39 


case  it  is  likely  very  soon  to  assume  control  in  all 
cases  ? 

The  men  who  have  been  at  the  head  of  the  labor 
movement  here  of  late  have  taught  violence,  and  noth- 
ing but  violence,  as  the  first  and  the  last  resort  of  their 
followers  in  every  controversy.  They  have  educated  a 
large  number  of  ignorant  and  reckless  people  on  this 
line.  They  have  many  organizations  and  some  thou- 
sands of  adherents  who,  partly  by  reason  of  false 
teaching  and  partly  by  reason  of  official  demagogy, 
have  come  to  believe  that  crimes  committed  in  the 
name  of  unionism  are  not  crimes  and  that  laws  bear- 
ing upon  other  people  do  not  apply  to  them. 

The  Chronicle  has  pointed  out  more  than  once  that 
such  conditions  as  these  can  have  no  other  result  than 
unrestrained  lawlessness  in  which  there  can  be  secur- 
ity for  nobody  and  from  which  unionists  themselves 
are  quite  as  likely  to  sufifer  as  anybody  else.  This  has 
been  the  history  of  all  disorders  and  it  will  be  the  his- 
tory of  labor  union  disorders. 

No  doubt  there  were  good  reasons  for  the  refusal 
of  the  teamsters  in  this  case  to  enter  upon  a  sympa- 
thetic strike.  When  sympathetic  strikes  prevail  there 
will  be  little  industry,  for  desperate  men  are  certain  to 
count  upon  them  and  to  make  their  plans  accordingly. 

But  whether  the  reasons  were  good  or  bad,  the 
teamsters  who  declined  to  strike  and  who  went  about 
their  lawful  business  are  probably  agreed  that  the 
methods  adopted  by  the  strikers  to  enlist  their  sym- 
pathy were  highly  reprehensible  in  that  they  substituted 

40 


force  for  reason  and  denied  to  men  acting  within  the 
law  free  choice  in  the  matter  of  employment. 

Where  snch  savagery  prevails  there  can  be  no  sub- 
stantial progress  for  labor,  and  industry  itself  cannot 
fail  to  sufifer  permanent  injury  to  the  detriment  of  em- 
ployer as  \we\\  as  employe. 

The  man  who  has  nothing  to  sell  but  his  services 
may  be  taught  differently  by  demagogues  and  fanatics, 
but  his  interest  in  the  maintenance  of  law  is  greater 
than  that  of  most  men  who  have  great  possessions  of 
money,  lands,  buildings  and  securities.  The  rich  man 
can  get  away  from  disorder.  The  poor  man  must 
stay  and  face  it  and  stand  the  consequences. 

In  the  long  run,  however,  there  is  no  safety  for  any- 
body in  these  matters  except  in  obedience  to  law  and 
respect  for  the  rights  of  others. 

This  used  to  be  habitual  with  the  American  people. 
It  will  be  habitual  with  them  again  when  the  element 
which  is  now  under  the  influence  of  self-seeking  revo- 
lutionists and  the  riot  press  come  to  a  full  apprecia- 
tion of  the  folly  and  the  danger  of  lawlessness. 


HATRED    OF    THE    RICH. 


EDITORIAL  :       WALL  STREET    JOURNAL 


Bishop  Spalding  of  Illinois  says  truly  that  in  this 
country  the  poor  have  never  hated  the  rich,  though 
there  has  been  occasionally  a  great  outcry  against  their 
dishonesty  and  ruthlessness. 

The  reason  why  the  poor  in  America  liave  not  hated 

41 


the  rich  is  because  most  of  the  American  rich  have  de- 
veloped from  the  ranks  of  the  poor,  and  every  poor 
man  knows  that  he  has  within  him  the  possibiHties  of 
attaining  wealth.  In  the  ranks  of  the  poor  are  to  be 
found  the  recruits  for  the  great  positions  of  contiol 
of  the  capital  of  the  country.  There  has  indeed  re- 
cently developed  a  note  of  hopelessness  which  is  ex- 
pressed by  John  Mitchell,  in  his  book,  that  the  average 
wage-earner  has  made  up  his  mind  that  he  must  for- 
ever remain  a  wage-earner.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether 
that,  indeed,  is  the  mental  condition  of  a  majority  of 
the  wage-earners  of  the  country,  few  of  whom  have  not 
within  them  a  deep-seated  hope  that  they  may  be  able 
at  some  time  to  cross  the  line  that  separates  them  from 
the  empire  of  capital.  Moreover,  it  may  be  said  that  not- 
withstanding the  immense  changes  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  organization  of  business  in  the  past  twenty 
years,  the  opportunities  for  the  poor  man  are  still 
many,  and  no  man  who  feels  that  he  may  possibly  be- 
come some  day  a  capitalist  himself  is  likely  to  long  in- 
dulge a  hatred  of  the  rich. 

That  there  are  certain  persons  in  this  country  who 
are  ever  seeking  to  inspire  such  a  hatred,  there  is  no 
doubt.  Deliberate  attempts  are  made  from  time  to  time 
to  create  a  bitter  class  feeling  in  this  country  and  to  ar- 
ray the  poor  against  the  rich,  the  wage-earner  against 
the  capitalist.  Yellow  journalism  has,  partly  for  busi- 
ness, and  partly  for  political  reasons,  partly  to  increase 
circulation,  and  partly  to  further  ambition  for  political 
honor,  done  much  to  inflame  the  passions  of  the  poor 
against  the  rich.    While  this  is  not  the  most  dangerous 

42 


and  demoralizing  evil  of  yellow  journalism,  it  is  one 
of  the  evils  which  are  rightly  chargeable  against  it. 

It  must  be  confessed  also  that  capital  by  its  excesses 
and  its  lust  for  power  has  been  giving  aid  and  encour- 
agement to  these  efforts.  If  capital  does  not  wish  to 
create  a  condition  in  this  country  where  hatred  of  the 
rich  shall  be  the  dominant  feeling,  moving  the  majority 
of  the  American  people,  it  must  see  to  it  that  it 
keeps  within  proper  control,  that  it  does  not  abridge 
the  opportunities  of  the  poor,  that  it  does  not  oppress 
them,  that  it  does  not  use  its  power  of  concentrated 
wealth  to  annihilate  competition  and  corrupt  politics. 
If  wealth  will  conduct  itself  in  moderation,  hold  itself 
in  subjection  to  law,  and  keep  itself  from  excesses 
and  greed,  there  is  no  danger  that  any  efforts  to  in- 
flame the  poor  with  hatred  of  the  rich  will  be  suc- 
cessful. 


SOCIALISM  DESTROYS  PROSPERITY. 


The  inability  of  socialism  to  create  a  prosperous 
state  where  it  has  had  a  free  field  in  an  unoccupied 
territory  is  clearly  shown  in  an  article  in  this  issue  on 
"Australia's  Promise  and  Peril."  At  the  entrance  to 
the  harbor  of  New  York  stands  the  statue  of  "Liberty 
Enlightening  the  World."  No  such  statue  beckons 
the  toiling  millions  of  the  world  to  seek  in  Australia 
the  promised  land  of  liberty,  peace  and  plenty.  No 
such  invitation  issues  from  the  socialistic  government 
or  experience  of  Australia.  Any  policy  of  a  state  that 
tends  to  destroy  individual  initiative  and  enterprise; 

43 


any  industrial  policy  that  tends  to  hold  back  the  most 
energetic  and  capable  to  the  level  of  the  average  man 
or  the  less  competent,  tends  to  destroy  liberty,  peace 
and  plenty.  This  fact  is  understood  by  the  toilers  who 
compose  the  streams  of  emigrants  constantly  moving 
from  one  country  to  another  in  search  of  opportunity 
to  use  their  power  to  labor  to  a  better  advantage  than 
they  can  find  in  the  land  of  their  birth.  Socialism  in 
practice  repels  the  workers  whose  welfare  it  is  its 
theory  to  promote.  Of  this  fact  the  streams  of  emi- 
gration flowing  into  the  United  States,  and  the  drouth 
experienced  by  Australia,  are  a  practical  demonstration. 
Wherever  conditions  of  public  employment  are  made 
easier  than  they  are  in  private  employment  the  many 
in  private  employment  are  compelled  to  make  up  the 
difference  from  the  earnings  of  their  toil.  When 
every  worker  in  this  country  knows  and  understands 
this  fact  the  sophistry  of  those  who  advocate  an  eight- 
hour  day  for  government  employes  will  fail  to  find 
support  from  those  who  would  become  its  victims. 


AUSTRALIA'S  PROMISE  AND  PERIL. 


editorial:  boston  evening  transcript. 


The  defeat  and  resignation  of  the  Australian  Federal 
ministry  on  a  new  issue  preferred  by  the  ''labor  party," 
so  called,  raises  a  grave  question  whither  the  course 
of  experimental  paternalism  which  this  land  of  prom- 
ise is  pursuing  will  lead  it.  The  rest  of  Christendom 
has  watched  these  experiments  with  absorbing  interest, 

44 


alternating  between  hope  and  doubt.  On  one  point  at 
least,  agreement  has  been  nearly  unanimous ;  that  if 
ever  the  new  theories  of  industrial  and  social  welfare 
were  to  be  fully  and  fairly  tested  under  plastic  condi- 
tions unhampered  by  the  weight  of  tradition  and 
vested  interests,  Australasia  was  the  chosen  spot  of 
earth,  providentially  reserved,  as  it  were,  for  this  be- 
nign purpose. 

And  it  may  be  that  much  will  indeed  be  wrought 
out  in  these  new  workshops  to  the  profit  of  mankind. 
Every  young  civilization  has  been  schoolmaster  in 
some  particulars,  if  not  many,  to  its  older  neighbors. 
But  as  Australian  experience  develops  it  is  becom- 
ing clearer  that  even  more  old  truths  are  being  re- 
affirmed than  new  ones  brought  out.  For  example, 
the  building  up  of  a  healthy,  w^ell-balanced,  prosperous 
civilization  in  a  new  land  has  always  depended  chiefly 
upon  freedom  of  opportunity  for  individual  enterprise. 
Not  even  the  w-ealthiest  and  most  complex  societies 
to-day  find  it  possible  to  discourage  or  dispense  with 
this  vital  element — much  less  Australia  and  her  lesser 
neighbors.  With  a  territory  nearly  as  large  as  that 
of  the  United  States,  Australia  supports  hardly  more 
than  three  and  a  half  million  souls,  115  years  after 
settlement  by  white  men  began.  The  grand  need  is 
for  colonization ;  men  who  will  strike  into  the  wilder- 
ness and  hew  out  new^  centers  of  production,  trade 
and  habitation,  or  stake  their  all  in  new  industries  for 
uncertain  and  relatively  meager  markets,  waiting  for 
the  slow  rewards  of  time  and  sacrifice. 

Canada    is    encouraging   the    influx    of   such    men ; 

45 


Australia  doubtless  wants  them  too,  but  the  whole 
trend  of  her  public  policy  at  present  favors  the  element 
whose  main  interest  is  in  the  distribution  rather  than 
the  creation  of  wealth.  There  is  much  to  commend 
in  the  idea  of  starting  off  in  a  new  country  with  proper 
factory  and  hours-of-labor  regulations ;  but  the  fact 
cannot  be  arbitrarily  dismissed  that  ample  leisure  is 
not  one  of  the  normal  first  fruits  of  pioneer  civihza- 
tion.  Limitations  on  hours  of  service  should  be  rea- 
sonable and  advance  with  the  general  social  and  eco- 
nomic progress,  but  it  is  a  highly  doubtful  experiment 
to  fix  them  at  once  at  the  extreme  outpost  that  has 
been  found  possible  in  rich  and  populous  communities 
where  the  need  of  extra  exertion  has  long  since  been 
offset  by  almost  unlimited  employment  of  capital  and 
labor-saving  aids  to   production. 

Australian  laws  not  only  press  hard  upon  the  entre- 
preneur on  this  side,  fixing  minimum  wage  rates,  the 
eight-hour  day,  and  virtually  compelling  employment 
of  union  labor  only,  but  the  state  shows  every  dispo- 
sition to  enter  the  industrial  field  as  a  competing  fac- 
tor, extremely  liable,  as  experience  in  these  ventures 
shows,  to  deficits  which  must  be  made  up  by  taxation 
drawn  from  the  earnings  of  private  industry.  Not 
only  are  the  railways,  tramways,  telegraph  service 
and  the  like  operated  by  the  state,  but  New  South 
Wales  has  a  state  clothing  factory,  railway  supply 
shops,  and  is  considering  proposals  for  government 
steel  and  iron  works,  locomotive  shops,  and  a  wire- 
netting  plant;  the  minister  of  public  works  boasts  of 
having  "expended  five  millions  in  providing  employ- 

46 


ment  for  state  workers,"  and  the  easy-going  "govern- 
ment stroke"  has  become  a  familiar  phrase. 

Federal  protection  to  home  industries  is  afforded, 
to  be  sure,  but  it  is  a  question  whether  it  will  accom- 
plish the  end  desired,  with  the  heavy  offsets  of  in- 
creasing taxation,  increasing  interest  rates  on  the 
swelling  public  debt,  the  threat  of  more  and  more 
state  competition  with  private  enterprise,  the  radical 
forcing  of  advanced  labor  conditions  desirable  in 
themselves,  but  a  severe  strain  on  the  slender  re- 
sources of  infant  industries ;  and,  withal,  the  con- 
tinuing success  of  political  powers  committed  to  these 
policies.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  present 
rush  of  emigration  from  Australia,  due  in  part  to 
crop  failures,  is  also  in  large  measure  the  outcome 
of  this  unfavorable  attitude  toward  middle-class  in- 
terests. The  excess  of  newcomers  over  emigrants  in 
the  last  census  decade  was  only  about  5,000,  as  com- 
pared with  an  average  of  some  250,000  for  each  of 
the  three  previous  periods.  Victoria,  which,  if  any- 
thing, has  surpassed  New  South  Wales  in  ''social 
experiment,"  lost  112,000  more  than  the  new  arrivals; 
in  New  South  Wales  the  excess  of  immigrants  was 
less  than  10,000,  and  in  the  last  two  years  the  balance 
has  been  the  other  way.  The  one  notable  excess  of 
arrivals  over  departures  (130,000)  was  in  the  remote 
and  desolate  territory  of  western  Australia.  Those 
who  are  leaving,  according  to  the  Australian  Globe, 
are  ''mostly  a  class  who  have  been  born  or  long- 
settled  in  Australia,  many  being  steady,  competent 
tradesmen ;  not  a  few  belonging  to  the  ranks  of  mas- 

47 


ter  craftsmen,  others  being  pastoralists,  farmers,  sta- 
tion hands ;  in  fact,  the  very  men  of  which  the  com- 
monwealth stands  in  most  need." 

It  will  be  well  if  the  possession  of  larger  responsi- 
bility by  the  now  dominant  political  forces  brings  a 
new  disposition  to  heed  these  signs  of  menace.  So- 
cial reforms  which  do  not  include  the  welfare  of  all 
the  necessary  groups  in  a  stable,  vigorous  civilization 
will  go  lop-sided  and  fail  to  teach  the  lessons  of 
promise  other  peoples  have  been  waiting  to  learn. 


LABOR  UNIONS  AND  SOCIALISM. 


editorial:  Chicago  chronicle. 


Trades  union  outcry  against  the  situation  in  Las 
Animas  county,  Colorado,  justifies  the  belief  that  the 
trades  union  socialists  are  either  repudiating  their 
socialism  or  that  they  do  not  know  what  socialism 
really  means. 

Socialism,  in  its  fundamentals,  contemplates  the 
ascendancy  of  government  in  all  the  affairs  of  life. 
It  means  the  interposition  of  government  not  only  in 
public  but  in  private  matters. 

Under  a  socialistic  form  of  government  the  indi- 
vidual would  be  a  mere  grown-up  infant,  to  be  fed, 
nursed,  coddled  or  spanked  according  to  his  needs. 
There  would  be  no  toleration  of  anything  like  at- 
tempts at  individualism.  Government  would  relent- 
lessly repress  individualistic  manifestations  as  tending 

48 


to  disturb  that  dead  level  of  equality  and  mediocrity 
contemplated  by  the  advocates  of  socialism. 

The  trades  union  socialists  profess  to  yearn  for 
such  a  condition  of  human  society,  yet  they  inveigh 
bitterly  at  the  action  of  the  Colorado  government  in 
exemplifying,  in  a  small  way,  the  very  principles 
which  they  profess.  They  characterize  the  proclama- 
tion of  martial  law  as  tyrannical  and  the  attitude  of 
Governor  Peabody  as  revolutionary,  yet  the  procla- 
mation and  the  gubernatorial  attitude  are  both  in 
consonance  with  the  theories  of  the  high  priests  of 
socialism.  They  mark  the  acute  stage  of  the  conflict 
between   government  and  individualism. 

That  is  to  say,  the  Colorado  miner-socialists  are 
seeking  to  set  up  their  individual  ideas  against  gov- 
ernment as  represented  by  the  governor  and  the  state 
militia.  In  defiance  of  all  socialistic  doctrine  they  un- 
dertake to  say  that  they — a  mere  handful  of  individ- 
uals— have  rights  superior  to  those  of  the  great  ma- 
jority of  the  population.  They  assert  that  govern- 
ment has  no  right  to  coerce  them  into  doing  anything 
that  they  do  not  want  to  do. 

This,  of  course,  is  a  flat  denial  of  the  very  basic 
dogma  of  socialism,  which  teaches  that  the  govern- 
ment is  everything  and  the  individual  nothing.  It  in- 
dicates, as  was  premised,  that  the  Colorado  labor  union 
socialists  are  becoming  doubtful  of  the  orthodoxy  of 
the  socialistic  doctrine  when  it  happens  to  come  into 
violent  collision  with  their  own  purposes  and  ideas. 

Perhaps,  indeed,  the  real  trades  union  idea  of 
socialism   is  that  the  trades  unions   should  constitute 

49 


the  government  and  that  the  rest  of  the  population 
should  be  the  governed.  Such,  at  any  rate,  seems  to 
be  a  reasonable  inference  from  the  situation. 


WHO    ARE  RESPONSIBLE? 


When  things  go  wrong  in  any  organization,  in- 
dustrial, social  or  political,  fixing  responsibility  for 
the  blunder  is  always  wise  and  necessary.  Unless 
this  is  done  confidence  in  the  present  management 
and  hope  for  future  usefulness  must  become  seriously 
impaired. 

A  person  who  would  attempt  to  justify  wrong- 
doing because  others  are  guilty  of  the  same  or  similar 
conduct  is  not  a  safe  person  to  be  in  the  management 
of  any  kind  of  associated  effort.  In  fact,  he  is  not  a 
safe  person  to  have  the  management  of  himself.  He 
is  a  victim  of  vice,  not  a  master  of  liberty. 

Undesirable  industrial  conditions,  so  far  as  they 
are  created  by  trade  unionism,  have  two  causes: 
First,  honest-minded  leaders,  sincerely  working  for 
the  uplifting  of  their  class,  have  narrow  views  and 
very  imperfect  perceptions  of  the  true  principles  that 
must  govern  all  associated  effort,  if  such  effort  is  to 
result  in  a  real  and  permanent  benefit  for  all  persons 
interested.  Honest  but  misguided  zeal  is  frequently 
more  damaging  to  a  cause  than  outright  incapacity 
and  venality.  It  is  very  difficult  to  convince  an  hon- 
est-minded man  who  thinks  himself  well  informed, 
because  he  does  not  know  enough  to  know  he  is 
wrong.     Believing  himself  to  be  right,  he  will  resent 

50 


every  effort  to  show  him  wherein  he  'm  wrong.  He 
cannot  understand  that  the  successes  of  ignorance 
must  necessarily  be  mistakes.  This  class  of 
persons  occupying  positions  of  leadership  in  trade 
unionism  do  the  cause  of  labor  more  harm  than 
all  others  combined.  The  second  cause  of  undesir- 
able industrial  conditions  is  the  influence  and  leader- 
ship of  charlatans.  These  persons  are  not  all  found 
in  the  membership  of  trades  unions.  They  are  in 
evidence  in  the  ranks  of  employers  and  the  mechan- 
ism of  political  parties.  Those  who  seek  to  gain  their 
ends  by  corrupt  means  have  little  appreciation  of  and 
care  for  the  principles  of  justice.  Their  chief  concern 
is  to  make  money  and  gain  power,  and  keep  out  of 
jail.  They  care  nothing  for  the  consequences  of  their 
acts  as  they  may  affect  others.  This  class  of  men  are 
not  defeated,  they  are  strengthened,  by  compromises. 
The  only  thing  for  which  they  have  the  least  respect 
is  a  power  that  can  put  them  out  of  commission. 

When  honest-minded  and  intelligent  men  bind 
themselves  to  the  ignorant,  vicious  or  corrupt,  they 
must  control  the  organization  or  suffer  from  the  bad 
company  they  are  in.  This  is  the  case  of  labor  union 
leaders  who  denounce  sympathetic  strikes,  the  as- 
sessment of  "waiting  pay"  on  employers  for  the  set- 
tlement of  strikes  and  lawlessness,  and  violence  in 
all  its  forms.  If  they  are  not  strong  enough  to  con- 
trol the  conduct  of  unions  they  are  not  true  leaders. 
They  are  the  led  and  must  suffer  the  consequences 
of   bad    leadership. 


51 


JOHN   MITCHELL  ON   VIOLENCE. 


editorial:  Chicago  tribune. 


The  leaders  of  the  working  class  of  America  will 
indorse  what  John  Mitchell,  the  leader  of  the  leaders, 
says  in  this  week's  Interior:  'Tt  is  perfectly  just  that 
all  forms  of  violence  be  visited  with  condign  and  sum- 
mary punishment."  *Tf  it  were  true  that  all  strikes 
would  fail  if  physical  force  could  not  be  resorted  to, 
it  would  be  better  to  demonstrate  that  fact,  and  to 
seek  remedy  in  other  directions  than  to  permit  strikes 
to  degenerate  into  conflicts  between  armed  men." 

Thus  speak,  and  thus  will  speak,  the  responsible 
men  who  are  guiding  the  trade  union  movement.  Mr. 
Mitchell,  the  president  of  a  great  union  of  unions, 
says  publicly  that  he  would  prefer  the  extinction  of 
the  union  to  the  acceptance  of  violence  as  the  de- 
termining factor  in  strikes. 

How  does  it  happen,  then,  that  Mr.  Mitchell  is  not 
able  to  draw  all  of  his  subordinates  up  to  his  own 
high  standards? 

BLACK    AND    BLACK     MAKE    BLACK. 

One  reason  for  the  difference  between  the  ideals 
of  the  leaders  and  the  practices  of  the  subordinates 
is  to  be  found  in  the  temper  of  present-day  society. 
How  easy  mutual  recriminations  are!  And  how  just! 
When  a  union  restricts  the  number  of  its  apprentices, 
thereby  interposing  an  artificial  barrier  to  the  learning 
of  a  trade,  how  just  and  how  easy  it  is  to  point  to 

52 


the  large  corporations  like  the  coal  railroads,  which 
pile  up  their  product  at  a  point  remote  from  the 
market  and  then  wait  for  the  advance  in  prices! 
When  the  teamsters  of  Chicago  interrupt  funeral 
processions,  insulting  the  dead,  how  just  and  how 
easy  it  is  to  point  to  the  diphtheritic  antitoxin  trust 
which  crushed  competition,  debauched  legislatures  and 
doubled  prices,  thereby  killing  the  living!  When  the 
unions  are  charged  with  employing  corrupt  business 
agents  like  Parks,  how  just  and  how  easy  it  is  to 
point  to  the  part  which  the  Chicago  street  railroad 
companies  have  played  in  the  Legislature  at  Spring- 
field! 

This  ''you're  another"  argument  is  not  an  exculpa- 
tion. Black  does  not  lose  its  tint  when  it  is  covered 
with  another  coat  of  black.  The  only  deduction  that 
can  be  made  from  the  comparison  of  the  lawlessness 
of  the  trade  unions  and  the  lawlessness  of  the  cor- 
porations is  that  the  nation  cannot  consider  the  mote 
which  is  in  its  left  eye  without  considering  the  beam 
which  is   in   its   right. 

VIOLENCE   AND   TENEMENTS. 

But  it  is  not  only  true  that  trade  union  lawlessness 
is  connected  with  the  general  lawlessness  which  pul- 
pit, platform,  press  and  public  unite  in  condemning. 
It  is  also  true  that  the  American  working  class  of 
to-day  is  quite  different  from  the  American  working 
class  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  and  is  much  more 
likely  to  adopt  violent  methods. 

The  representative  of  the  working  class  of  a  hun- 

53 


dred  years  ago  was  the  artisan,  working  in  a  commu- 
nity which  the  modern  world  would  regard  as  a 
village,  breathing  the  fresh  air,  building  his  little 
cottage,  and  living  his  life  through  without  much 
concern  about  education  or  about  politics.  In  most 
of  the  American  colonies  the  right  of  suffrage  was 
separated  from  the  artisan  by  the  wall  of  a  high  prop- 
erty qualification. 

The  representative  of  the  working  class  of  to-day 
is  the  factory  operative,  confined  to  a  set  task,  re- 
moved farther  and  farther  from  the  responsibilities 
of  management,  as  such  responsibilities  concentrate 
themselves  gradually  into  the  hands  of  fewer  and 
fewer  men,  weakened  morally  by  the  absence  of  the 
responsibilities  in  question,  reduced  to  the  position  of 
an  automaton,  living  in  crowded,  insanitary  tenement 
districts  which  are  themselves  one  of  the  problems 
of  the  modern  world,  weakened  physically  by  his  sur- 
roundings, retaining  superficial  traces  of  the  imper- 
fect education  which  he  received  in  the  public  schools, 
gathering  information  and  ambition  from  the  daily 
papers,  exercising  the  right  of  suffrage,  restless  and 
irreverent. 

It  is  a  case  where  unless  there  is  an  outlet  some- 
thing will  break. 

TRADE    UNIONS   OR    WORSE. 

Trade  unionism  is  the  outlet.  As  it  makes  its  way 
forth,  bearing  on  its  bosom  the  ambitions  of  the 
working  class,  it  is  accompanied  frequently  by  vio- 
lence.    Society  is  reaping  the  crop  which  it  has  sown 

54 


in  the  tenement  districts.  The  state's  attorney  of 
Cook  county  has  pointed  out  the  fact  that  almost  all 
the  burglaries  and  holdups  of  this  community  can  be 
traced  to  young  men  resident  in  tenement  districts. 
The  violent  members  of  the  violent  trade  unions  are 
resident  in  tenement  districts.  When  they  go  into 
trade  unions  they  carry  with  them  the  ideals  of  their 
districts.  They  must  be  punished  just  as  burglars 
and  holdup  men  must  be  punished.  But  if  the  method 
of  punishing  them  is  to  be  the  destruction  of  their 
unions,  John  Mitchell  has  incidentally  indicated  what 
will  happen. 

"It  will  then  be  necessary,"  says  he,  *'to  secure  re- 
forms for  workingmen  exclusively  through  political 
action."  Anybody  who  wishes  to  see  the  working 
class  go  into  politics  for  the  advancement  of  its  own 
class  interests  through  the  control  of  the  city,  state 
and  national  governments  could  do  nothing  better  than 
to  try  to  dam  up  the  non-political  outlet  which  the 
working  class  now  has.  Immediate  municipal  own- 
ership in  Chicago  was  an  idea  supported  almost  en- 
tirely by  a  trade  union  agitation.  It  carried  the  last 
election  by  a  large  majority.  This  is  a  political  force 
that  is  not  negligible. 

John  Mitchell  hits  the  nail  on  the  head. 


55 


TRADES  UNIONS  AND  INDUSTRIAL  FREE- 
DOM  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST. 


editorial:  new  york  journal  of  commerce. 


With  the  possible  exception  of  Chicago,  none  of 
the  great  cities  of  the  country  has  suffered  so  much 
from  the  tyrannical  exactions  of  the  trades  unions 
as  San  Francisco.  Demagogism  of  the  kind  that 
truckles  to  the  worst  forms  of  union  tyranny  and  ap- 
peals to  the  least  scrupulous  methods  of  union  man- 
agement has  dominated  the  local  politics  of  San 
Francisco,  has  proved  a  serious  hindrance  to  the 
growth  of  its  trade,  and,  up  to  a  time  not  yet  twelve 
months  old,  has  terrorized  its  business  community 
into  a  state  of  abject  subjection. 

When  this  despotism  became  too  odious  to  be 
borne  it  brought  about  the  formation  of  various  or- 
ganizations of  employers,  manufacturers  and  others, 
in  response  to  the  call  of  an  emergency,  with  whose 
passing,  however,  the  organization  usually  ceased  to 
exist.  It  was  felt  by  all  thoughtful  observers  of  the 
situation  that  the  far-reaching  nature  of  the  injury 
inflicted  by  repeated  excesses  of  power  on  the  part  of 
the  labor  unions  demanded  more  thorough  and  dis- 
criminating treatment  than  could  be  expected  of 
men  banded  together  to  meet  interference  in  their 
personal  affairs.  There  was,  accordingly,  formed, 
under  the  title  of  the  Citizens'  Alliance,  an  organiza- 
tion of  "the  community  of  the  third  party,"  heretofore 
not  considered  in  these  industrial  wars,  but  the  party 

56 


that  endures  their  cost  and  loss  and  stands  impartially 
between  the  immediate  parties  to  the  conflict.     This 
association    was    avowedly    formed    for    "protection 
against  the  boycott,  coercion,  persecution  of  non-union 
labor,   and  other  usurpations   and  oppressive  acts  of 
labor  unions."     Its  declared  object  was  "to  promote 
the  stability  of  business  and  the  steady  employment 
of  labor,  whether  organized  or  unorganized,  by  en- 
couraging  friendly  relations   between   employers   and 
employes,    and    to    discourage    lockouts,    strikes   and 
boycotts  and  all  kindred  movements  which  savor  of 
persecution."     It  further  aimed  to  protect  its  mem- 
bers in  their  inalienable  right  to  manage  their  busi- 
ness in  such  lawful  manner  as  they  deemed  proper, 
without    domination    or    coercion    by    any    organized 
movement  whatever. 

The  alHance  numbers  about  20,000  members,  and 
its  method  of  procedure  is,  when  a  boycott  or  strike 
takes  place,  to  investigate  the  matter  thoroughly, 
and  if  the  action  is  found  to  be  unjust,  to  exercise  all 
its  influence  to  redress  the  injustice.  The  mode  of 
action  adopted  can  best  be  illustrated  by  one  of  its 
circulars  of  recent  date,  referring  to  a  specific  case, 
which  formed  the  subject  of  investigation  by  the 
officers  of  the  alliance,  as  follows: 

"The  firm  of  are  boycotted  and  are  listed 

by  the  unions  as  an  unfair  house.  The  matter  of  this 
boycott  and  listing  has  been  examined  by  us,  and. 
after  careful  consideration,  we  conclude  that  it  is  un- 
just. This  boycott  is  what  is  known  as  a  'quiet  boy- 
cott'— that   is,   there   are   no   union    pickets    or   sand- 

57 


wich  men  in  front  of  the  store,  as  the  unions  found 
that  such  a  method  was  not  so  effective  a  boycott, 
as  it  served  somewhat  to  advertise  the  store.  Messrs. 
are  members  of  the  Citizens'  AlHance  and  en- 
titled to  our  support.    We  ask  that  you  assist 


by  patronizing  them  for  articles  in  their  line  which  you 
may  require." 

The  success  which  has  attended  the  work  of  the 
alliance  has  been  sufficient  to  lift  from  San  Francisco 
the  reproach  of  being  a  union-ridden  city.  It  has 
improved  the  relations  between  employers  and  em- 
ployed, because  it  has  relieved  workingmen  them- 
selves from  oppression  at  the  hands  of  the  profes- 
sional agitators  and  politicians  of  the  union,  and  has 
brought  to  an  end  the  unchallenged  supremacy  of 
labor  domination  from  below.  The  alliance  chal- 
lenges the  right  of  the  labor  union  to  exceed  the 
sovereignty  of  the  state,  and  to  assume  to  be  superior 
to  the  civil  and  moral  obligations  of  citizenship.  It 
declares  that  the  misuse  of  the  power  of  organization 
in  the  hands  of  professional  agitators  has  not  only 
caused  serious  and  defiant  violation  of  law  and  de- 
struction of  life  and  property,  but  has  gone  farther 
than  present  injury  by  striking  at  the  future  welfare 
of  the  country  in  matters  of  vital  importance.  It 
argues,  with  obvious  justice,  that  the  limitation  of 
apprenticeship  to  the  handicrafts  has  practically  out- 
lawed our  native  youth.  "Forbidden  the  right  to 
learn  a  trade,  they  must  either  overcrowd  the  pro- 
fessions or  fester  in  the  vices  of  idleness  until  they 
require  the  restraint  of  reform  schools  and  prisons." 

58 


Criminal  statistics  show  that  80  per  cent  of  our 
prison  population  are  persons  who  learned  no  trade 
or  handicraft.  In  addition  to  this  denial  of  the  right 
of  apprenticeship  to  American  youth,  ambitious  labor 
agitators  claim  the  right  to  license  American  labor 
and  to  enforce  the  license  by  denying  to  all  non-union 
labor  the  right  to  work  at  all.  This  extraordinary 
infringement  of  natural  right  is  enforced  by  the  boy- 
cott and  by  maiming  and  murder. 

It  is  unquestionably  true  that  the  judicious  friends 
of  union  labor  deplore  these  excesses.  At  the  same 
time  the  places  in  our  industries  that  should  be  filled 
by  training  American  youth  are  occupied  by  ever- 
increasing  foreign  immigration,  which  is  immediately 
taken  into  the  unions  and  taught  that  it  must  depend 
upon  the  unions  and  the  union  oath,  and  not  upon  the 
laws  of  the  country  and  its  oath  of  allegiance.  Thus, 
while  it  should  be  the  first  object  of  civic  influence 
to  have  the  immigrant  assimilated  to  our  political 
institutions,  under  the  union  policy  his  first  training 
is  in  lawlessness  and  disorder,  and  he  is  apt  to  remain 
an  alien  increment,  thankless  for  his  asylum  and  un- 
grateful for  his  liberty.  These  considerations,  and 
much  more  to  the  same  effect,  have  found  such  gen- 
eral acceptance  among  the  citizens  of  San  Francisco 
that  85  per  cent  of  its  business  people  who  have  signs 
on  their  windows  or  over  their  doors  belong  to  the 
Citizens'  Alliance.  Branches  of  the  organization 
have  been  established  in  Sacramento  and  other  cities 
of  the  state,  and  the  movement  is  about  to  spread  to 
Butte  City,  Mont.,  the  recognized  stronghold  of  one 

59 


great  branch  of  unionism.  Farmers'  locals  are  being 
started  in  seven  counties  in  the  vicinity  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  it  is  claimed  that  by  next  December  every 
farmer  in  the  state  will  belong  to  one  of  these  asso- 
ciations. On  the  vi^hole,  the  Citizens'  Alliance  of 
San  Francisco  has  accomplished,  in  a  comparatively 
short  time,  a  very  remarkable  piece  of  work,  and  has 
had  an  experience  which  ought  to  be  full  of  en- 
couragement to  the  people  of  other  cities  who  are 
seriously  considering  a  similar  set  of  problems.  If 
such  results  can  be  accomplished  by  a  little  energy 
and  resolution,  in  so  unpromising  a  field  as  that  pre- 
sented by  the  chief  city  of  California,  there  need  be 
no  hesitation  in  assuming  that  the  application  of  sim- 
ilar methods  would  be  at  least  equally  efficacious 
elsewhere. 


MERIT  LABOR   UNIONS. 


The  "Sensible  Talk  to  Workers,"  by  President  C.  S. 
Mellen  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  Rail- 
road, published  in  this  issue,  contains  as  much  good 
instruction  for  employers  and  others  as  it  does  for 
workingmen.  His  characterization  of  trades  unionism 
as  it  exists  to-day  is  strikingly  caustic  and  just.  When 
he  says  ''men  of  affairs  are  not  looking  for  firebrands, 
for  trouble  breeders,  for  talkers,  but  rather  for  the 
quiet  man  who  works  while  others  do  the  talking, 
the  one  who  is  as  much  interested  in  his  work  as  in 
his  wages,"  he  states  a  truth  that  should  require  no 

60 


argument    to    enforce    it    upon  the    minds    of    every 
workingman  who  does  his  own  thinking. 

When  he  declares  that  trades  unions,  as  now  man- 
aged, are  "a  good  thing  for  the  drone,  the  inefficient 
man,  for  the  walking  delegate  and  the  officers,  but 
are  unnecessary  for  the  man  who  has  the  stuff  and 
courage  within  himself  to  carve  his  own  way  in  the 
world"  he  puts  into  words  the  experience  of  every 
man  who  has  been  successful  in  working  his  way 
from  employe  to  employer.  Not  one  man  has  been 
aided  in  doing  this  by  trades  unionism.  The  practical 
effect  of  trades  unionism  is  to  average  the  earnings 
of  the  lame,  the  halt  and  the  weary  with  the  really 
competent.  This  can  be  done  only  at  the  expense  of  the 
competent.  Seeing  these  things  clearly,  President 
Mellen  shows  shrewd  judgment  when  he  says  he 
wishes  all  good  men  to  join  the  unions  because  he 
wishes  ^'to  have  in  the  unions  the  conservative  in- 
fluence of  many  of  the  good  men  who  are  out,  to 
counteract  the  floater,  the  anarchist,  the  man  who 
has  nothing  at  stake  in  the  world,  who  works  with 
his  mouth  more  than  his  hands."  He  drives  this 
point  home  by  declaring,  ''Apathy  is  the  opportunity 
of  the  demagogue,  the  anarchist,  the  floater,  who  has 
nothing  to  lose."  This  is  true  of  every  encroachment 
upon  the  rights  of  the  people,  by  whomever  made. 
Those  who  concoct  schemes  for  their  own  profit  at 
the  expense  of  others  can  safely  rely  for  protection 
upon  the  old  proverb,  "Everybody's  business  is  no- 
body's business,  therefore  nobody  will  attend  to  it." 
While  the  apathetic  sleep  the  evil  work  is  done. 

6i 


Only  when  intelligent  men  who  are  as  much  in- 
terested in  their  work  as  in  their  wages  assert  them- 
selves as  members  of  trades  unions  and  demand  pref- 
erence for  superior  skill,  diligence  and  stability,  will 
trades  unionism  be  placed  on  a  rational  and  solid 
basis  of  merit.  When  unions  become  competent  to 
contract  to  supply  all  the  labor  an  establishment  may 
require,  to  guarantee  the  character  and  the  amount 
of  work  to  be  done,  they  will  make  a  union  card  a 
certificate  of  merit,  entitled  to  preference  by  any 
employer,  and  such  preference  will  be  compelled  with- 
out argument  or  coercion.  It  will  be  commanded  by 
the  self-interest  of  the  employer.  Trades  unions  that 
can  accomplish  such  a  result  will  have  no  trouble  with 
the  question  of  open  or  closed  shops.  All  shops  will 
be  open  to  them,  they  will  close  all  shops  to  fire- 
brands, trouble  breeders  and  men  who  work  overtime 
with  their  mouths   and   undertime  with  their  hands. 

There  is  an  abundance  of  ability  in  the  ranks  of 
every  class  of  workmen  to  form  merit  unions.  All 
it  requires  is  organizing.  To  do  this  the  apathy  of 
the  men  who  work  while  others  talk  must  be  over- 
come by  those  who  are  capable  of  pointing  out  the 
way  to  a  true  union  of  competent  labor  for  the  pro- 
motion  of   efficiency. 


SENSIBLE  TALK  TO  WORKERS. 


WHAT    UNIONS    MEAN    TO    WAGE    EARNERS. 


President  C.  S.  Mellen  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven 
&  Hartford  Railroad  was  warmly  received  in  Hartford 

62 


by  members  of  the  West  Side  Workingmen's  Club,  to 
which  he  dehvered  an  address.  President  Mellen, 
above  all,  said  he  wished  to  merit  and  enjoy  the  con- 
fidence and  good-will  of  workingmen,  especially 
those  employed  by  the  New  Haven  company,  and  par- 
ticularly when  the  relationships  with  his  employes 
were  strained,  as  they  happen  to  be  at  the  present 
time.  He  said  that  he  was  nothing  more  than  a 
workingman  himself.  He  was  born  of  parents  who 
had  to  work  for  a  living,  and  he  declared  that  he  had 
personal  knowledge  of  the  trials  and  privations  of 
living  on  a  small  income.  From  childhood  on  he  had 
remembrances  of  denials  and  economies  necessary 
to  preserve  existence.     Then  he  said : 

^Therefore,  I  speak  to  you  from  the  platform  of 
equality,  from  the  standpoint  of  experience,  from  the 
position  of  a  well-wisher,  and  from  a  desire  to  be  of 
assistance,  for  I  have  only  contempt  for  the  man  who 
forgets  his  forbears,  who  believes  himself  of  better 
class  than  his  neighbors,  who  ignores  and  seeks  to 
consign  to  oblivion  his  days  of  small  beginning,  who 
tries  to  draw  up  the  ladder  by  which  he  has  climbed, 
or  who,  conscious  of  his  own  inefficiency,  seeks  to  ob- 
struct others,  for  fear  he  may  be  passed  in  his  strug- 
gle for  the  goal. 

"I  yield  to  no  one  of  you  that  you  have  worked 
harder,  or  longer  hours,  or  for  less  pay ;  that  you 
have  had  harder  taskmasters  or  more  disagreeable ; 
that  you  have  been  more  apprehensive  of  the  fu- 
ture, or  more  bitter  over  injustice,  or  that  the  period 
of  discouracrement  ever  has   made  the   world   darker 

63 


■■{=)' 


than  seemed  possible  to  bear,  so  dark  that  ahiiost 
any  change  was  a  promise  of  improvement. 

'The  hope  and  future  of  this  country  He  in  the 
common  people,  in  the  workingmen,  in  yourselves. 
But  men  of  affairs  are  not  looking  for  firebrands, 
for  trouble  breeders,  for  talkers,  but  rather  for  the 
quiet  man  who  works  while  others  do  the  talking, 
the  one  who  is  as  much  interested  in  his  work  as 
his  wages. 

''To  those  of  you  who  belong  to  unions  I  wish  to 
say  that  I  believe  they  have  accomplished  much  good, 
but  they  are  nevertheless  not  an  unmixed  blessing  to 
the  laboring  man.  They  are  a  good  thing  for  the 
drone,  the  inefficient  man,  for  the  walking  delegate 
and  the  officers,  but  are  unnecessary  for  the  man 
who  has  the  stuff  and  courage  within  himself  to 
carve  his  own  way  in  the  world.  Therefore,  when  I 
say  unions  do  much  good  I  mean  they  help  the  lame, 
the  halt  and  the  weary  at  the  expense  of  the  really 
competent. 

"Divested  of  all  claptrap,  the  union  is  simply  a 
means  of  averaging  wages,  and  an  employer  views 
it  as  such.  It  is  a  device  for  making  those  who  are 
willing  to  work  care  for  those  who  want  to  'soldier.' 
I  regard  the  unions  as  a  condition  that  has  come  to 
stay;  that  I  have  no  prejudice  whatever  to  properly 
conducted  ones,  and  express  my  wish  that  our  men 
generally  would  join  them,  not  that  I  would  run  a 
union  plant  as  such,  for  I  would  not  coerce  my  men 
to  consent  to  discrimination  as  between  those  who 
were  and  who  were  not  members,  but  I  would  wish 

64 


to  have  in  the  unions  the  conservative  influence  of 
many  of  the  good  men  who  are  out,  to  counteract 
the  floater,  the  anarchist,  the  man  who  has  nothing 
at  stake  in  the  world,  who  works  with  his  mouth 
more  than  his  hands. 

''The  trouble  with  unionism  is  its  intolerance.  The 
rule  of  seniority  is  a  bad  one.  In  the  short  time  I 
have  been  in  authority  here  I  have  been  restricted 
from  advancing  those  who  had  attracted  my  attention 
by  their  ability,  through  this  rule.  No  one  interest 
has  done  more  to  promote  the  trust  or  combination, 
the  larger  corporation,  than  organized  labor.  It  has 
forced  them  into  existence  for  protection  from  ex- 
action. 

"And  to  what  does  it  all  tend?  Given  all  your  hot- 
heads seek  and  there  will  be  no  one  to  employ  you 
and  public  corporations  must  be  run  by  the  govern- 
ment. Capital  will  not  seek  investment  where  nothing 
but  loss  and  controversy  are  to  result.  The  hothead 
must  be  retired,  or  in  the  contest  in  which  he  will  in- 
volve you  you  will  go  down  in  defeat.  The  contest 
will  not  be  determined  by  numbers.  Education  and 
brains  will  outweigh  numbers  and  brawn.  The 
spectacled  student  is  to  be  the  general  of  future 
armies. 

"My  advice  to  you  who  have  families,  who  have 
a  stake  in  the  world,  is  to  join  your  unions  and  make 
yourselves  felt  in  them.  Be  always  a  force  for  con- 
servatism. Your  apathy  is  the  opportunity  of  the 
demagogue,  the  anarchist,  the  floater,  who  has  noth- 
ing to  lose.    I  desire  to  go  on  record  here  in  declaring 

65 


that  arbitrary,  unreasonable  exercise  of  power  by 
those  temporarily  in  authority  is  as  offensive  to  me 
as  to  any  of  you,  and  I  am  disposed  to  neither  coun- 
tenance nor  condone  it. 

''With  business  falling  off,  day  by  day,  here  in 
New  England,  I  find  my  political  friends  opposing  an 
enlargement  of  our  markets  and  preferring  a  phrase, 
'stand  pat,'  to  the  substance  that  reciprocity  with 
our  neighbor,  Canada,  would  give  us,  and  when  I 
feel  they  ought  to  know  better,  it  is  not  in  me  too 
severely  to  criticize  the  employes  of  our  company 
who  feel  they  should  have  higher  wages,  when  the 
conditions  with  which  we  are  surrounded  compel  us 
to  disagree  with  them. 

"I  would  like  to  pay  the  men  of  our  company  bet- 
ter wages,  but  if  I  do  it  someone  else  will  take  my 
place  who  will  bring  about  an  equitable  comparison. 
If  our  employes  could  only  know  the  struggle  it 
has  been  in  the  last  few  months  to  keep  so  many  of 
them  at  work  at  all,  they  would  feel  our  officials  have 
had  their  interests  in  mind  much  more  than  they  are 
willing  to  admit.  I  would  not  strike  for  money,  but 
only  to  resent  injustice,  and  none  of  our  men  need 
strike  for  that  reason  while  I  am  in  a  position  of 
authority." 


ENEMIES  OF  UNIONISM. 


editorial:  wall  street  journal. 


A  friend  of  ours  sends  us  a  compilation  of  facts 
gathered  from  the  daily  newspapers  relative  to  crimes 

66 


committed  by  labor  unionists  in  the  United  States 
during  the  twelve  months  ended  January  31,  1904. 
We  have  space  to  print  only  the  totals,  which  are  as 
follows : 

Murder  and  suicide 20 

Assault   on   persons 383 

Intimidation   of   persons 27 

Interference   with   funerals 18 

Assaults  on  the  home 6 

Assaults    on  mercantile    and    manufacturing    es- 
tablishments       46 

Assaults  on  railroads 39 

Assaults  on  the  state 17 


Total     556 

Remembering  that  the  record  is  obviously  most  in- 
complete, this  is  a  most  discouraging  showing.  It  is 
easy  to  see  how  these  things  have  occurred,  but  it  is 
impossible  to  excuse  them.  We  have  referred  more 
than  once  in  times  past  to  records  of  this  kind,  and 
have  pointed  out  how  terribly  they  hurt  the  cause  of 
labor  unionism,  and  there  is  nothing  new  to  say  about 
them  now.     They  tell  their  own  story. 

Labor  leaders  in  this  country  are  probably  unable, 
at  all  times,  to  control  the  actions  of  all  their  mem- 
bers. In  the  nature  of  things  this  must  be  so,  for  it 
is  true  of  every  organization.  Nevertheless,  surely 
they  must  recognize  the  need  for  a  particularly  vig- 
orous effort  on  their  part  to  stop  this  sort  of  thing. 
It  is  usual  for  human  nature  to  go  on  the  principle 
that  one  wrong  justifies  another,  and  that  two  wrongs 

67 


make  a  right.  Unfortunately,  men  in  all  walks  of  life 
too  often  act  upon  this  principle.  It  is  not  enough 
for  labor  leaders  to  say  that  union  men  are  no  worse 
than  anybody  else.  In  the  present  condition  of  so- 
ciety it  is  surely  to  the  very  best  interest  of  unionism 
that  its  leaders  and  its  members  should  earnestly  at- 
tempt to  stand  and  walk  upon  a  higher  plane  than 
that  of  humanity  in  general.  Labor  leaders  claim 
that  union  men  are  better  workmen  than  non-union 
men,  and  they  should  exact  from  them  the  higher 
sense  of  responsibility  that  should  accompany  the 
higher  level  of  ability  claimed.  There  are  some  labor 
leaders  who  exercise  their  utmost  influence  against 
violence,  but  there  are  far  too  many  who  are  content 
to  shirk  their  responsibility,  and  evade  the  perform- 
ance of  their  duty,  in  this  respect. 

Labor  unionism  is  still,  in  a  measure,  on  trial,  and 
evidence  such  as  that  given  above  is  damning  in  the 
eye  of  the  general  public,  whose  sympathy  is  most 
surely  needed  by  union  labor.  The  strike  that  is  lost 
without  violence  is  better,  in  the  long  run,  for  union 
labor  than  the  strike  that  is  won  with  violence.  If 
there  be  truth  in  the  principle  of  organization  for 
labor  (as  we  firmly  believe  there  is)  it  will  ultimately 
prevail.  Violence  is  injustice,  and  injustice  is  a 
wrong  against  truth,  and  can  but  delay  the  truth's 
recognition  and  hinder  its  application. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  will  not  long  per- 
mit conditions  of  civil  war  to  exist  in  any  part  of 
the  community.  If  strike  be  pushed  beyond  the  lim- 
its of  toleration,  it  may  easily  happen  that,  in  quell- 

68 


ing  it,  injustice  will  be  meted  out  to  the  offending 
party.  At  present  the  sympathy  of  the  people  is 
evoked  by  union  labor,  for  the  laboring  man  occu- 
pies the  position  of  the  ''under  dog,"  to  whom  sym- 
pathy always  goes  out.  Public  sympathy,  however, 
cannot  but  be  weakened  by  the  development  of  tyr- 
annous methods  in  union  quarrels.  Union  labor 
forms  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the  total  popu- 
lation, a  mere  fraction,  in  fact.  Cannot  its  leaders 
see  that  they  are  pushing  endurance  to  its  farthest 
limit?  Cannot  they  see  what  will  happen  when  that 
limit  has  been  passed? 


THE  DAWN  OF  REASON  IN  LABOR 
PROBLEMS. 


We  present  in  this  issue  an  admirable  discussion  of 
the  labor  problem,  as  presented  by  trades  unionism 
and  employers'  unionism,  by  Mr.  Hayes  Robbins,  un- 
der the  title  of  *Ts  It  the  Trusts'  or  the  Unions?" 
We  wish  we  could  induce  every  member  of  a  trade 
union,  every  member  of  an  employers'  and  every 
member  of  ''the  party  of  the  third  part"  to  read  and 
carefully  consider  what  Mr.  Robbins  says  in  this 
article.  We  would  here  repeat  all  that  he  says  under 
the  subtitle  of  "Systematic  Bribery  Would  Defeat 
Itself"  if  we  did  not  fear  that,  by  so  doing,  we 
might  prevent  some  superficial  reader,  who  would 
think  he  had  thus  obtained  the  pith  of  the  article, 
from  reading  it  as  a  whole. 

There  is  a  lesson  here  for  more  than  members  of 

69 


unions  of  employes  or  of  employers.  It  can  be  ap- 
plied to  the  evil  of  bribery  and  corruption  wherever 
found.  There  is  a  limit  to  what  any  person  or  or- 
ganization can  afford  to  pay  for  anything  that  can 
be  obtained  by  corruption,  but  there  is  no  limit  to 
what  a  corrupt  walking  delegate  or  a  member  of  a 
legislative  body  can  and  will  demand  if  buyers  are 
known  to  be  in  the  market.  Temporary  advantages 
may  be  gained  by  bribery.  It  may  give  some  in- 
dividuals a  chance  to  secure  illegitimate  gains,  but 
it  cannot  induce  satisfactory  settlements  that  are  a 
permanent  gain  for  all  parties  affected  by  them. 
This  must  be  done  by  reason,  not  bribery.  Every 
person  in  a  representative  position,  whether  it  be 
political  or  commercial,  who  accepts  or  pays  a  bribe, 
is  a  worse  enemy  to  the  interests  he  represents  than 
its  recognized  opponents. 

Upon  two  points  trades  unionism  is  being  punished 
most  severely — bribery  and  brutality.  One  is  de- 
veloped by  submission  to  blackmail  by  employes  who 
are  forced  to  so  protect  their  temporary  interests. 
The  other  is  developed  by  the  demand  for  a  "closed 
shop."  Bribery  and  brutality  admit  of  no  conciliation 
or  compromise.  They  are  wholly  immoral  and  vi- 
cious. Those  who  are  guilty  of  advising  or  practicing 
them  must  be  ruled  out  of  court,  they  must  be  de- 
nied standing  in  any  conference  where  honesty  and 
intelligence  are  to  prevail.  Evidence  is  accumulating 
that  tends  to  show  that  sagacious  leaders  are  cog- 
nizant of  this  fact  and  are  inclined  to  purge  them- 
selves  of   all   charges   of   dallying   with   these   evils. 

70 


With  their  subsidence  reason  will  become  master 
in  the  councils  of  those  who  have  to  do  with  labor 
problems.  At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  National 
Manufacturers'  Association  Mr.  Parry,  its  president, 
said:  "The  net  results  of  the  year's  campaign  have 
been  decidedly  in  the  direction  of  a  better  understand- 
ing between  employer  and  employes  as  to  the  rights 
of  each." 

A  better  understanding  results  from  the  dawn  of 
reason,  the  subsidence   of   bribery   and   brutality. 


IS  IT  THE  "TRUSTS"  OR  THE  UNIONS? 


BY    HAYES    ROBBINS,     WINCHESTER,     MASS. 


WHAT     ARE     THE     EMPLOYERS      ASSOCIATIONS     REALLY 
FIGHTING? — IS     THERE     AN     '^'"oCTOPUS"     IN     THE 
CASE,,    OR     HAVE   THE   LABOR    UNIONS    THEM- 
SELVES   BROUGHT    ON    THE    CONFLICT? 


Not  in  many  years  has  the  world  of  industry  pro- 
duced anything  quite  so  unique  as  the  employers'  as- 
sociations, or  what  might  be  called  "employers' 
unions,"  formed  to  checkmate  the  strides  of  labor 
unions,  all  over  the  country.  To  be  sure,  the  "trust" 
climax  of  1899-1900  was  more  startling,  but  after  all 
it  was  quite  in  line  with  what  had  been  going  on  for 
years.  Not  so  with  this  new  employers'  movement. 
This  seems  to  mark  an  actual  right-about-face  in  the  re- 
lations that  have  existed  between  employers  and  wage- 
earners  during  the  last  hundred  years.     Until  now  it 

71 


has  been  the  workingmen  who  were  driven  to  organ- 
ize, to  fight  the  "oppressors."  The  power  of  capital 
was  overwhelming.  Laborers,  isolated,  were  helpless. 
United,  if  they  could  make  a  little  headway  against 
the  giant,  well  and  good ;  but  hold  their  own  they 
must  at  all  hazards. 

A    REMARKABLE    REVERSAL. 

Behold  the  wonderful  change  to-day.  These  same 
labor  unions,  once  despised  and  tabooed  everywhere, 
have  become  so  strong  that  it  is  the  employers  them- 
selves who  are  forced  to  unite  for  common  defense, 
however  little  they  like  each  other  on  other  counts. 
Labor  is  supposed  to  be  doing  the  "oppressing." 
Capital  is  casting  about  for  ways  and  means  to  hold 
its  own.  And  this  is  why  we  have  some  six  hundred 
or  more  of  these  employers'  associations  and  citizens' 
alliances,  most  of  them  less  than  two  years  old,  and 
a  large  number  of  them  now  standing  together  in  a 
national  organization,  the  "Citizens'  Industrial  As- 
sociation of  America,"  promoted  by  David  M.  Parry, 
the  energetic  Indianapolis  carriage  manufacturer, 
who  has  been  twice  elected  president  of  the  National 
Association  of  Manufacturers. 

AN     ACCUSATION,     NOT     AN     EXPLANATION. 

On  the  face  of  it,  such  a  change  is  remarkable. 
And  it  is  not  surprising  that  some  of  the  efforts  to 
explain  it  are  more  or  less  sensational.  The  natural 
cause  that  seems  to  be  plainly  enough  in  sight  for 
everybody  who  runs  to  read  is  simply  that  it  is  due  to 
the  grip  organized  labor  has  obtained  upon   a  large 

72 


portion  of  the  manufacturing  industries  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  excesses  and  abuses  to  which  it  too  often 
lends  itself.  But  another  explanation  has  been  of- 
fered which  is  really  more  of  an  accusation — that  the 
labor  unions  do  not  lie  at  the  root  of  the  matter ;  they 
are  only  surface  disturbers,  only  "tools"  in  the  hands 
of  other  and  far  mightier  powers  making  for  the 
ruin  of  independent  private  enterprise  everywhere, 
and  the  new  employers'  movement  was  forced  into 
being  because  of  these  powers  in  the  background, 
but  for  which  the  labor  unions  could  never  have 
grown  into  the  menace  they  are. 

It  seems  very  easy  to  find  a  deep-laid  plot  at  the 
bottom  of  every  new  phase  of  the  industrial  problem. 
The  special  villainy  supposed  to  underlie  this  em- 
ployers' movement  is  that  the  trusts,  or,  at  any  rate, 
the  large  and  powerful  interests,  have  made  corrupt 
''deals"  with  labor  ''bosses"  whereby  plenty  of  help 
is  to  be  guaranteed  at  all  times  and  no  strikes  de- 
clared, but  as  much  trouble  as  possible  stirred  up  for 
the  smaller  and  rival  concerns.  Hence  the  latter  have 
had  to  make  common  cause  or  be  ground  to  powder 
between  the  upper  and  nether  millstones  of  the  dast- 
ardly scheme.  It  all  sounds  so  simple  that  if  the 
trusts  have  not  actually  gone  into  it  yet  one  would 
think  they  must  feel  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  imagi- 
nation which  could  evolve  so  fertile  a  hint.  But 
perhaps  they  realize  that  it  is  not  so  easy  after  all. 

WHY    THE    LARGE    CONCERNS    WANT    PEACE. 

The  very  ordinary  fact  which  may  have  suggested 

73 


the  possibility  of  this  network  of  capitalist  deviltry  is 
that  the  larger  the  business  the  more  important  it  is 
to  have  production  go  on  without  interruption. 
This  means,  of  course,  that  harmony  with  labor  is 
a  vital  point.  A  great  industry,  therefore,  finds  it 
particularly  good  policy  to  adopt  a  liberal  attitude 
toward  its  employes.  As  a  rule,  it  can  afiford  this 
much  better  than  a  long  shut-down.  For  instance, 
the  most  important  increases  in  wages  during  the 
last  few  prosperous  years  have  been  those  granted 
voluntarily  by  large  concerns.  The  very  clockwork 
nature  of  a  colossal  industry,  the  dependence  of  all 
its  operations  upon  each  other,  makes  it  all  the  more 
easily  open  to  attack.  A  strike  among  the  boys  or 
girls  who  look  after  the  bobbins  on  the  spinning 
frames  in  a  modern  cotton  mill  will  halt  the  entire 
process,  for  the  time  being,  just  as  completely  as  if 
all  the  hands  should  walk  out  in  a  body.  So  far  as 
the  running  of  a  watch  is  concerned,  you  might  as 
well  strike  it  a  blow  with  a  hammer  as  to  break  out 
one  or  two  cogs.  The  case  is  not  always  so  definite 
as  that,  in  a  factory,  but  it  resembles  it  in  most  of 
them,  in  some  very  closely. 

A   TERRIFIC  INDICTMENT. 

Employers  of  armies  of  workingmen  realize  this 
practical  fact  more  and  more.  They  know  the  cost 
of  a  labor  struggle,  and  because  they  know  they  are 
the  less  disposed  to  haggle  over  petty  differences  with 
the  men ;  more  inclined,  on  the  whole — and  granting 
some  prominent  cases  to  the  contrary — ^to  concede  a 

74 


"fair"  wage  scale  and  promote  good  feeling  in  var- 
ious ways.     That  they  have  sought  in  some  cases  to 
ward  oft"  strikes  by  corrupting  the  walking  delegates 
may  be  true.     This  is  charged  especially  in  the  build- 
ing trades,  and  probably  with  more  reason  there  than 
almost  anywhere  else,  but  in  most  of  the  cases  it  has 
turned   out   that   the   strikes   which   were  bought   off 
were  not  genuine  strikes  at  all,  but  blackmail  threats 
on   the  part   of   labor   ''grafters"   of  the    Sam    Parks 
type,  who  were   "out   for  the  cash,"   and  that  only; 
further,  that  the  corrupters  of  labor  men  were  quite 
as  often  small  concerns  as  large.     To  say  that  bri- 
bery of  the  unions  has  become  the  voluntary  method, 
preferred  and  agreed  upon  as  a  regular  system  among 
the   giant  enterprises   for   their  own   advantage,   and 
to  include  the  ruining  of  all  competitors,  is  to  launch 
a    terrific    indictment    against    the    character  of    our 
leading  business  men  as  a  class,  which  needs  far  more 
proof  than  has  yet  appeared.     Certainly,  if  any  such 
wholesale   corruption   exists   it  reflects   such  a  moral 
rottenness  in  our  entire  industrial  life  that  the  wonder 
is  how  the  fabric  has  held  together  thus  far  or  how 
it  continues  to   hold  together. 

SOME    EVIDENCES    TO    THE    CONTRARY. 

There  is  no  sufficient  evidence  for  any  such  general 
charge.  On  the  contrary,  the  facts  weighing  against 
it  are  by  all  odds  the  stronger.  If  the  very  large 
employers  arc  actually  in  a  corrupt  league  with  the 
labor  leaders,  they  are  getting  painfully  little  out  of 
their  end  of  the  bargain.     The  kind  of  labor  peace 

75 


they  are  supposed  to  have  bought  is  not  exactly  the 
kind  a  practical  outsider  would  suspect  them  of  pay- 
ing any  exorbitant  price  for.  It  was  not  worth  much 
to  the  steel  corporation,  the  greatest  of  all,  as  re- 
cently as  1901,  nor  to  the  *'coal  barons"  in  1902. 
Few  railroad  or  street  railway  companies  would 
ever  think  of  including  it  as  a  permanent  asset  in 
their  report  to  stockholders. 

Even  in  the  building  industry  the  very  large  com- 
pany which  was  most  freely  credited  with  "owning" 
the  labor  leaders,  getting  full  protection  from  strikes 
all  through  the  late  building  paralysis  in  New  York, 
while  rivals  were  "tied  up,"  proved  to  have  been  one 
of  the  chief  victims.  It  had  no  strike  on  the  main  de- 
partments of  structural  work,  to  be  sure,  but  wher- 
ever it  had  sub-contracts  placed  in  the  hands  of  firms 
that  were  connected  with  the  local  employers'  asso- 
ciation it  was  in  constant  strike  difficulties,  and  so 
long  as  these  related  parts  of  the  work  were  un- 
finished it  was  quite  as  impossible  to  complete  a  con- 
tract, turn  it  over  and  collect  the  price,  as  if  the 
strike  had  been  general.  The  result  was  that  the 
company  had  to  reduce  its  force  radically,  withdraw 
from  the  bidding  on  certain  important  contracts,  cut 
down  its  operations  more  heavily  than  any  of  its  im- 
portant rivals,  and,  finally,  this  chief  of  conspirators, 
which  was  supposed  by  its  intrigues  to  have  forced  the 
other  employers  to  make  a  last  desperate  stand  against 
it,  itself  joined  the  association  of  these  employers  and 
made  common  cause  against  the  very  labor  forces 
it  was  believed  to  control. 

76 


SYSTEMATIC    BRIBERY     WOULD     DEFEAT     ITSELF. 

The  truth  is,  the  corrupt  system  so  vividly  pic- 
tured, once  become  a  "system,"  would  defeat  itself. 
There  is  a  limit  to  what  even  a  trust  will  pay  to 
buy  a  walking  delegate,  but  there  is  no  limit  to  what 
a  venal  delegate  can  and  will  demand  if  the  way  is 
prepared.  Let  it  become  the  understood  thing  that 
a  cash  price  will  be  paid  for  "peace"  and  who  can 
imagine  a  Sam  Parks  or  a  Lawrence  Murphy  failing 
to  demand  the  full  amount  and  promising  the  same 
old  penalties  if  the  rate  is  not  increased?  The  large 
interests  would  very  soon  find  that  they  had  only 
succeeded  in  raising  the  expense  margin  of  trouble 
to  a  higher  point,  not  in  getting  rid  of  it  by  any 
means.  In  other  words,  these  deals  could  prosper 
only  as  they  were  strictly  individual  and  infrequent, 
and  not  parts  of  a  general  system.  What  has  the 
average  American  business  man  ever  done  to  justify 
the  belief  that  he  is  so  devoid  of  ordinary  "horse 
sense"  as  not  to  realize  the  folly  of  letting  such  prac- 
tices become  the  "regular  thing,"  as  links  in  a  chain 
of  perpetual  blackmail,  by  his  own  invitation  and 
permission  ? 

THE  ROOT  OF  THE  TROUBLE. 

No ;  we  must  have  a  more  reasonable  accounting 
for  the  employers'  associations  than  this.  The  real 
root  of  the  trouble  seems  to  lie  in  the  fact  that  during 
the  last  two  or  three  years  a  powerful  element  of  the 
organized  labor  army,  flushed  with  power,  has  fairly 
lost  its  head.     Success   in  many   directions  has  been 

71 


too  much  for  it.  The  temptation  to  test  this  new 
power  wherever  a  chance  offered  to  strike  a  blow 
was  too  strong  for  many  to  resist.  And  so,  in  many 
cases,  agreements  and  contracts  have  been  violated, 
non-union  men  maltreated  openly  and  brutally,  in- 
tolerant demands  made  for  control  of  shop  rules  and 
methods,  innocent  parties  forced  to  join  in  boycotts 
in  quarters  where  they  had  no  grievance,  while 
coarse  ruffians  and  "grafters"  have  ruled  here  and 
there  with  high  hand. 

A    LABOR    leader's    WARNING. 

There  is  no  denying  that  these  things  have  cooled 
public  sympathy  and  invited  just  the  sort  of  com- 
bined attack  which  the  unions  are  now  facing.  One 
of  the  sanest  leaders  in  the  labor  movement  to-day 
has  not  been  afraid  to  sound  the  warning.  ''We 
have  seen  union  after  union  destroyed,"  says  Henry 
White,  "after  reaching  the  zenith  of  power.  All  the 
struggles  made  to  gain  that  point  have  been  lost 
through  lack  of  self-restraint.  It  is  idle  to  pooh-pooh 
the  organized  opposition  to  the  labor  movement.  It 
is  growing  with  startling  rapidity  all  over  the  coun- 
try. It  indicates  a  revulsion  of  sentiment.  Until 
recently  the  predominating  public  desire  was  to 
strengthen  the  working  classes.  Now  a  dread  has 
arisen  that  the  unions  cannot  be  trusted  with  power 
and  that  if  given  it  they  will  exercise  it  to  the  injury  of 
themselves  and  society." 

WHAT  THE  EMPLOYERS   SHOULD  REMEMBER. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  employers  make  the  mis- 

78 


take  of  attacking  the  principle  and  fact  of  labor  or- 
ganization itself,  apart  from  its  excesses,  they  are 
likely  to  find  that  public  opinion  is  not  necessarily 
committed  to  their  point  of  view ;  on  the  contrary, 
other  things  being  equal,  it  inclines  to  favor  the 
cause  of  the  wagevvorker.  It  does  not  forget  that 
employers  time  and  again  have  been  guilty  of  grave 
abuses  of  power  and  privilege  and  do  not  come  into 
the  conflict  of  this  kind  with  wholly  clean  hands.  The 
public  holds  the  right  of  workingmen  to  organize  for 
improved  conditions  to  be  quite  as  sacred  as  the  right 
of  employers  to  organize  for  any  purpose  whatever. 
It  may  be  counted  upon  to  stand  with  the  employers 
against  force,  tyranny,  persecution  and  violation  of 
contracts  wherever  these  evils  exist,  but  it  will  insist 
that  the  fight  be  made  upon  these  abuses,  and  above 
all  that  it  must  not  be  made  a  cloak  for  wage  reduc- 
tions later  on. 

For  the  sake  of  the  good  the  new  movement  can 
do,  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  will  not  let  the  heat  and  en- 
thusiasm of  the  campaign  carry  it  into  false  positions. 
What  this  very  mistake  is  costing  the  unions  is  plain 
enough ;  and  the  rule  works  both  ways. 


LIMITS  TO  THE  "CLOSED  SHOP." 


editorial:  Chicago  inter  ocean. 


The  Appellate  Court's  decision  in  the  Kellogg 
Switchboard  Company  case,  though  radical  trades 
unionists  will  doubtless  resent  it.  should  prove  bene- 
ficial to  labor  organizations  by  pointing  out  to  them 

79 


clearly  the  necessary  limits  upon  their  acts  and  deter- 
ring them  from  methods  of  getting  the  "closed  shop" 
which   inevitably   arouse   public   antagonism. 

There  was  a  strike  at  the  Kellogg  Company's  plant. 
Acts  of  violence  were  committed,  resulting  in  charges 
of  conspiracy  and  intimidation,  on  which  members  of 
the  two  unions  involved  were  convicted  and  fined  or 
imprisoned.  The  defendants'  counsel  admitted  that 
the  purpose  of  the  strike  was  to  bring  about  the  sign- 
ing of  ''closed  shop"  contracts.  Since  that  was  the 
purpose  of  the  strike  it  was  necessarily  the  purpose 
of  the  acts  of  violence. 

That  no  man  shall  be  compelled  to  enter  into  a  con- 
tract by  force  is  a  principle  of  law  long  ago  estab- 
lished for  the  protection  of  all  citizens.  It  is  just  as 
illegal  for  employes  to  compel  an  employer  to  hire 
them  on  their  terms  as  it  is  for  an  employer  to  compel 
employes  to  work  for  him  on  his  terms.  Both  sides 
must  voluntarily  agree  to  the  contract. 

On  the  ground  that  the  purpose  of  the  strike  was 
illegal,  the  court  held  that  the  acts  of  violence  com- 
mitted in  connection  with  it  must  be  punished,  and 
sustained  the  conviction  of  the  defendants.  The  court 
also  objected  to  the  "closed  shop"  contracts  as  ''creat- 
ing a  monopoly  in  favor  of  members  of  the  unions," 
but  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  bearing  this  had  on  the 
case  at  bar. 

If  the  Kellogg  Company  had  voluntarily  agreed  to 
hire  only  members  of  the  unions  the  court  would  cer- 
tainly not  attempt  to  compel  it  to  hire  other  persons 
on  the  ground  that  a  "monopoly"  had  been  created. 

80 


But  the  Kellogg  Company  did  not  so  agree,  refused  so 
to  agree,  and  the  offense  of  the  defendants  consisted 
in  trying  to  compel  it  to  do  what  no  man  may  legally 
be  compelled  to  do — yield  to  force  in  making  a  con- 
tract. 

In  the  nature  of  American  institutions  there  can 
be  no  "closed  shop"  in  public  employment.  But  in 
private  employment  the  "closed  shop"  is  an  advan- 
tage that  may  be  legitimately  sought.  It  is  evidently 
just  as  legitimate  for  a  trades  union  to  make  an 
exclusive  contract  for  the  use  of  its  labor  by  a  pack- 
ing house  as  it  is  for  a  packing  house  to  make  an 
exclusive  contract  with  a  hotel  for  the  use  of  its 
products. 

But  such  contracts  must  be  sought  by  proper 
means,  one  of  which  physical  force  is  not.  That  is  a 
fact  for  trades  unions  to  remember.  Another  fact 
for  them  to  remember  is  that  whenever  they  resort 
to  physical  force,  directly  or  indirectly,  they  arouse 
the  resentment  of  the  general  public,  which  is  not 
interested  in  the  particular  point  at  stake,  but  is  in- 
terested in  peace  and  order. 


THE     CRIMES     OF     MINERS     AND     MINE 

OWNERS. 


editorial:   Chicago   record-herald. 


In  spite  of  the  many  repetitions  of  the  maxim  that 
two  wrongs  never  make  a  right,  the  justification  of  a 
wrong  by  another  wrong  remains  a  common  practice, 
and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  the   Colorado  miners  have 

8i 

G 


succeeded  in  persuading  themselves  that  some  of 
their  acts  of  violence  are  completely  excused  by  the 
refusal  of  a  corrupt  legislature  to  pass  the  eight-hour 
law.  The  sense  of  injury  is  strong  upon  them,  a 
righteous  public  sentiment  is  with  them  in  condemning 
the  insolent  boodlers.  Thus  their  own  virtues  are 
confirmed  by  the  vices  of  their  enemies,  and  what 
they  would  consider  an  occasional  slip  in  their  own 
conduct  is  thought  to  be  condoned  owing  to  the  prov- 
ocation they  have  received. 

A  rough  justice  of  this  kind,  however,  keeps  per- 
petuating injustice,  and  the  best  way  to  crush  the 
legislators  and  the  mine  owners  who  bought  them 
is  by  offering  the  widest  possible  contrast  to  their 
methods.  The  men  simply  block  their  own  game 
when  they  divert  attention  from  the  misdeeds  of 
their  foes  to  misdeeds  of  which  they  themselves  are 
guilty,  and  that  is  a  fact  which  labor  organizations 
all  over  the  country  may  consider  with  profit.  But 
when  the  two  sets  of  offenses  are  separated  and  the 
miners  are  condemned,  as  they  should  be,  it  is  ob- 
vious that  no  language  is  too  strong  for  the  iniquity 
of  the  mine  owners.  These  men  appear  as  the  most 
despicable  and  dangerous  of  criminals  in  their  out- 
rageous attempt  to  thwart  the  popular  will.  A  con- 
stitutional amendment  had  been  adopted  by  a  vote 
of  72,980  to  26,266,  which  was  a  direct  command  to 
the  Legislature  to  pass  the  desired  law,  its  terms 
being  as  follows : 

"The  General  Assembly  SHALL  provide  by  law 
and  shall  prescribe  suitable  penalties  for  the  violation 

82 


thereof,  for  a  period  of  employment  not  to  exceed 
eight  hours,  within  any  twenty-four  hours  (except  in 
cases  of  emergency,  where  Hfe  or  property  is  in  im- 
minent danger)  for  persons  employed  in  underground 
mines,  or  other  underground  workings,  blast  fur- 
naces, smelters  and  any  ore  reduction  works  or  other 
branch  of  industry  or  labor  that  the  General  As- 
sembly may  consider  injurious  or  dangerous  to  health, 
life  or  limb." 

There  was,  of  course,  no  possibility  that  these 
words  should  be  misunderstood,  and  neither  is  there 
any  doubt  upon  the  part  of  persons  who  have  looked 
into  the  matter  that  they  were  ignored  because  the 
legislators  were  bribed  to  ignore  them.  This  mean, 
insidious  and  most  demoralizing  kind  of  crime 
which  undermines  the  very  foundations  of  govern- 
ment was  the  resort  of  rich  and  influential  men  who 
cut  a  figure  in  the  community,  and  who  no  doubt  are 
entirely  satisfied  as  long  as  they  keep  out  of 
the  penitentiary.  It  is  a  most  discouraging  feature 
of  such  cases,  moreover,  that  the  confidence  of  the 
criminals  in  their  immunity  from  punishment  is  gen- 
erally justified  because  of  the  great  difficulty  of  de- 
tection and  proof.  But  if  this  relieves  individuals 
it  intensifies  prejudices  against  the  class  to  which 
they  belong,  and  the  mine  owners  of  Colorado  will 
suflFer  as  a  class  by  what  has  been  done  probably 
for  a  long  time  to  come. 


83 


COLORADO'S  EVIL  DAYS. 


editorial:  boston  transcript. 


That  anarchy  not  only  consists  in  lawlessness,  but 
springs  from  it,  and  that  it  matters  not  whether  the 
anarchists  are  rioting  miners  or  millionaire  bribers  of 
a  Legislature,  is  the  keynote  of  Mr.  Baker's  recital 
of  Colorado's  disgrace.*  Successful  after  a  long 
struggle  in  securing  the  adoption  of  a  constitutional 
amendment  which  required  the  Legislature  to  pass 
an  eight-hour  law,  the  miners  saw  their  cause  go 
down  to  defeat  before  the  power  of  the  mine  owners' 
lobby.  The  Legislature  adjourned  without  passing 
the  bill,  defying  the  express  mandate  of  the  amend- 
ment, and  it  is  little  wonder  that  Moyer,  president 
of  the  miners'  organization,  should  say  to  his  follow- 
ers :  "What  is  the  use  of  your  ballots  anyway  ?  You 
might  as  well  tear  them  up  and  throw  them  in  the 
gutter.'* 

It  is  highly  probable  that  if  the  psychological  back- 
ground of  much  of  the  lawlessness  in  labor  conflicts 
could  be  traced  it  would  lead  straight  to  a  widespread 
feeling,  not  entirely  confined  to  wage-earners,  that 
the  laws  are  arrogantly  flouted  by  promoters  of  vast 
speculative  enterprises.  From  this  point  of  view  it 
may  prove  that  by  all  odds  the  most  valuable  result 
of   the    Northern    Securities    decision    is    the  demon- 

•The   reference  is   to   article   by   Mr.    Ray    Stannard   Baiter   in 
MoClure'a  Magazitve  of  May,  1904,  on  "The  Reign  of  Lawlessness." 

84 


stration  that  law  is  after  all  an  impressive  reality, 
even  against  the  most  powerful  interests  in  the  land. 

In  developing  this  phase  of  the  Colorado  situation 
Mr.  Baker  gives  perhaps  rather  disproportionate  em- 
phasis to  certain  incidents  of  the  struggle.  For  ex- 
ample, the  military  ''intimidation"  of  the  court  in 
Cripple  Creek  upon  one  occasion  is  hardly  to  be  re- 
garded as  typical  of  the  relations  between  these  two 
arms  of  the  law  throughout  the  contest ;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  appears  that  the  courts  have  not  shrunk 
from  a  conflict  with  the  state  authorities,  even  down 
to  the  latest  and  most  vital  case  of  all,  in  which  the 
federation  president,  Moyer,  although  under  military 
arrest,  was  brought  all  the  way  from  Telluride  to 
Denver  on  a  writ  from  the  seat  of  judicial  authority, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  Cripple  Creek  dis- 
trict it  has  been  notorious  from  the  first  that  the  bulk 
of  the  "terrorizing,"  such  as  it  is,  has  been  applied 
from  the  union  side,  even  to  the  extent  of  brutally 
assaulting  a  justice  of  the  peace  on  a  main  street 
in  broad  daylight,  because  of  a  court  decision  not 
pleasing  to  the  organization.  That  there  may  have 
been  some  occasion  for  extraordinary  military  meas- 
ures in  Cripple  Creek  in  certain  critical  moments 
might  be  suspected  at  any  rate  from  the  fact  that 
"Sheriff  Robertson,  the  chief  executive  officer  of  Teller 
county,  is  a  member  of  Miners'  Union  No.  40,  and 
practically  all  of  the  other  county  officers  are  union 
men  or  union  sympathizers." 

There  is  room  for  objection,  also,  to  placing  the 
expulsion    of    fourteen    union    leaders    from    Idaho 

85 


springs  by  the  Citizens'  Alliance  on  the  same  plane 
with  the  driving  out  of  Telluride  of  the  "scabs"  em- 
ployed at  the  Smuggler-Union  mine.  Both  proceed- 
ings were  lawless,  to  be  sure,  but  one  does  not  need 
to  be  a  partisan  of  the  citizens'  movement  to  see  a 
distinction  between  "rounding  up"  the  men  suspected, 
with  reason,  of  complicity  in  the  terrific  Sun-and-Moon 
non-union  mine  explosion  and  marching  them  to  the 
town  line,  with  orders  never  to  return,  and  the  mur- 
derous attack  by  an  armed  force  upon  men  whose 
only  crime  was  the  peaceable  pursuit  of  a  lawful 
occupation,  but  in  punishment  for  which  they  were 
brutally  beaten,  plundered  of  personal  possessions 
and  driven  over  the  mountain  range  to  an  accom- 
paniment of  blows,  vile  abuse  and  stray  shots  which 
left  their  marks  in  several  maimed  and  wounded 
men,  for  life. 

Mr.  Baker  does  not  refer  to  the  various  cases  of 
"mysterious  disappearance"  of  non-union  men,  which 
have  been  features  of  the  Colorado  conflict  from  the 
beginning,  nor  to  the  attempted  train-wrecking  near 
Altman,  nor  to  the  murder  of  Mine  Superintendent 
Gleason  in  Cripple  Creek.  But  the  division  of  re- 
sponsibility for  all  this  shameful  record  between  the 
law's  enemies,  both  in  high  places  and  low,  is  just, 
and  full  of  profound  significance.  It  is  not  enough 
to  put  down  a  riotous  outbreak;  wherever,  and  no 
matter  where,  the  many-forked  root  of  anarchy  runs, 
that  is  the  place  for  the  ax. 

Colorado  surely  owes  it  to  her  good  name  to  put 
her  house  in  order. 

86 


SOME    CONDITIONS  OF    "JOY    IN    LABOR." 


President  Eliot  and  Bishop  Lawrence  of  Massa- 
chusetts are  not  always  in  accord  either  on  matters 
theological  or  sociological.  Even  in  respect  to  Pres- 
ident Eliot's  doctrine  that  the  "joy  of  labor"  may 
and  must  be  found  in  large  part  in  the  interest  and 
satisfaction  of  performing  the  particular  task  in 
hand,  rather  than  chiefly  in  the  financial  rewards, 
the  bishop  is  not  entirely  convinced.  He  has  much 
larger  faith  in  the  consciousness  on  the  part  of  each 
workman,  however  exalted  his  position  or  however 
humble,  that  he  is  doing  his  share  in  the  common 
toil  of  the  world  and  hence  is  doing  his  duty  by  his 
brother  man.  To  inspire  in  each  workman  "the 
thought  that  he,  in  working  patiently,  efficiently, 
steadily,  and  with  a  high  character,  is  doing  his  part 
toward  building  up  the  great  social  fabric,"  will,  so 
the  bishop  thinks,  give  him  "a  motive  which  will 
make  his  labor  easier,  better  and  indeed  full  of  joy." 

We  reproduce  in  this  issue  a  portion  of  the  address 
outlining  this  point,  and  in  connection  with  it  a  se- 
lection from  President  Eliot's  notable  paper  on  the 
conditions  of  happiness  in  the  productive  labors  of 
mankind,  an  address  recently  delivered  in  Cambridge. 
The  element  of  good-will  Dr.  Eliot  holds  to  be  vital 
and  essential,  and  it  is  the  element  which  cannot  be 
present  so  long  as  employer  and  employe  are  re- 
spectively striving  to  get  the  utmost  possible  out  of 
each  other  for  the  smallest  return.  In  this  respect 
at  least  these  two  molders  of  public  opinion  will  be 

87 


found  on  common  ground.  If  the  joy  of  labor  con- 
sists, as  Bishop  Lawrence  declares,  in  faithful  doing 
of  one's  share,  then  the  rendering  of  that  service 
must  of  necessity  be  along  the  lines  of  good-will  and 
the  giving  of  full  value  for  everything  received, 
which  is  President  Eliot's  platform,  as  it  should  be 
of    every  just-minded    and   right-intentioned    citizen. 

Perhaps  Dr.  Eliot's  statement  of  the  case  is  rather 
the  more  satisfactory  because  of  his  recognition  that 
it  takes  two  to  establish  good-will,  no  less  than  to 
strike  a  bargain.  The  spirit  of  fairness  and  loyalty 
among  workingmen  can  hardly  be  expected  when  the 
opposite  attitude  is  taken  toward  them  by  the  directors 
of  their  labor.  A  completer  rounding  out  of  Bishop 
Lawrence's  suggestion  would  include  some  mention 
of  the  fact  that  the  joy  of  doing  one's  share  would 
be  considerably  more  joyous  if  the  disposition  were 
ever-present  on  the  other  side  to  agree  to  an  ade- 
quate and  just  sharing  in  turn  of  the  product  of  the 
joint  service  performed. 

That  disposition,  we  believe,  does  prevail  with  the 
majority  of  employers;  but  the  sins  of  the  stupid  and 
the  grasping  are  commonly  visited  upon  the  whole 
class  to  which  they  belong. 


THE  JOY  OF  DOING  ONE'S  PART. 


FROM    ADDRESS    BY    BISHOP    LAWRENCE    OF    MASSACHU- 
SETTS. 


Every    public-spirited   citizen    is    glad    to    see    the 
hours  of  labor  reduced  to  the  smallest  amount  con- 

88 


sistent  with  the  prosperity  of  society  and  the  wel- 
fare of  the  laborer.  Granted  that  the  hours  of 
labor  should  be  reduced  to  seven,  six,  five,  or  even 
four  hours,  the  problem  has  not  been  met.  Humanity 
cannot  endure  having  tens  of  thousands  of  men, 
women  and  children  pass  even  four  hours  a  day  in 
work  which  is  joyless,  benumbing  to  intellectual  and 
spiritual  faculties,  and  which  drives  the  workers  to 
say  that  they  live  by  it  and  not  for  it. 

Every  one  of  us  has  been  to  some  factory  or  in- 
dustrial center  where,  through  the  lack  of  sympathy 
between  the  people  and  the  managers,  there  has  been 
a  stolidity  and  even  sullenness  of  temper,  and  where 
the  people  have  gone  to  their  work  and  returned 
home  with  a  heavy  tread  and  joyless.  They  have 
stayed  there  only  because  they  had  to.  They  have 
taken  no  pride  or  satisfaction  in  their  labor,  because 
of  a  sense  of  injustice  or  hopelessness.  They  had  no 
thought  that  they  were  a  part  of  a  great  organiza- 
tion, no  interest  in  the  success  or  development  of  the 
work.  Each  man,  woman  and  child  did  his  stint  and 
did  it  because  he  had  to. 

In  contrast  with  this,  I  visited  a  few  weeks  ago  the 
Hampton  Institute  in  Virginia.  There  are  hundreds 
of  young  men  and  women  preparing  to  go  out  upon 
the  plantation  and  into  the  shop.  There  was  a  sense 
of  joy  and  buoyancy  and  responsibility  in  the  work. 
You  could  feel  it  almost  in  the  finger  tips  of  the 
mechanics,  the  milliners  and  the  tailors,  for  they  felt 
not  only  that  they  were  a  part  of  a  great  beneficent 
institution,  but  as  negroes  and  Indians  who  had  been 

89 


selected  as  representatives  of  their  race  they  realized 
that  upon  their  efforts  depended  to  a  great  degree  the 
condition  of  their  people  a  generation  hence. 

Now  I  believe  that  the  one  motive  that  is  needed  in 
the  great  body  of  our  v^^orking  people,  which  may  be 
instilled  in  childhood  and  nurtured  in  youth  and  man- 
hood, is  the  sense  that  each  and  all  of  them,  wherever 
they  are  placed,  are  doing  their  share,  if  they  live  in 
the  right  spirit,  toward  building  up  the  great  social 
fabric  of  which  they  are  a  part.  This  is  an  age  of 
team  play,  and  the  test  of  character  of  the  team  is  as 
to  whether  each  man  will  do  his  part  not  only  for 
himself  but  for  the  whole  body. 

To  some  is  given  one  position,  to  others  another. 
Those  who  have  the  best  positions  have  the  responsi- 
bility and  privilege  of  doing  all  in  their  power  to 
make  life  as  happy  as  possible  for  those  who  are  in 
the  harder  positions.  But  if  one  can  only  inspire  in 
the  life  of  the  humblest  mechanic  in  our  humblest 
factory  the  thought  that  he,  in  working  patiently, 
efficiently,  steadily,  and  with  a  high  character,  is 
doing  his  part  toward  the  building  up  of  the  great 
social  fabric,  he  will  have  given  him  a  motive  which 
will  make  his  labor  easier,  better  and  indeed  full  of  joy. 


GOOD-WILL  IN  LABOR  RELATIONS. 


FROM    ADDRESS   BY   PRESIDENT  ELIOT   OF   HARVARD    UNI- 
VERSITY. 


I  now  come  to  the  most  essential  element  in  the 
industrial  pursuit  of  happiness;  namely,  the  element 

90 


of  good-will.  It  must  be  confessed  that  the  policies 
and  methods  of  the  trades  unions  cultivate  hostility 
rather  than  good-will  between  the  employer  and  the 
employed,  and  between  unionists  and  non-unionists. 
Thus,  the  exclusion  of  non-union  labor  from  em- 
ployment is  not  only  an  attack  on  liberty  and  an 
effort  to  abolish  competition  and  secure  monopoly, 
but  it  is  supported  on  a  carefully  cultivated  sentiment 
of  contempt  and  dislike  for  men  whose  only  offense 
is  that  they  have  an  independent  habit  of  thought, 
and  prefer  in  practice  not  to  be  subject  to  the  orders 
of  the  majority  of  an  industrial  association  or  of  its 
officers — a  not  unnatural  preference  for  freemen  to 
entertain,  considering  that  these  orders  may  at  any 
time  affect  the  workman's  most  cherished  habits  and 
the  welfare  of  his  family. 

The  refusal  to  work  with  non-union  men  or  to 
touch  non-union  material  is  a  policy  in  which  there 
is  no  element  of  good-will  except  toward  unionists ; 
and  the  union  label — the  meaning  of  which  is  that 
none  but  union  men  have  touched  the  goods  which 
bear  it,  and  that  the  goods  have  been  made  com- 
pletely under  union  rules — is  another  hostile  effort 
against  the  non-union  man,  and  against  the  commu- 
nity, which  would  suffer  in  higher  prices  from  the 
attempted  reduction  of  competition. 

The  habitual  effort  of  trades  unions  to  create  a 
monopoly  in  labor,  each  in  its  own  trade,  is  a  hostile 
effort  against  the  community  as  a  whole ;  for  they 
seek  by  this  means  their  own  pecuniary  benefit  at 
the  expense  of  the  rest  of  the  community. 

91 


The  interest  of  workmen  in  the  cultivation  of  good- 
will throughout  the  factory,  mill  or  works  in  which 
they  labor  ought  to  be  intense,  because  it  is  perfectly 
plain  that  they  cannot  win  happiness  and  content  in 
their  lot  on  any  other  terms. 

Just  so  long  as  the  unions  teach  a  slow  or  mod- 
erate rate  of  work,  a  killing  time  while  apparently  at 
work,  a  diminishing  product  by  the  day  or  the  piece, 
and  a  deliberate  effort  to  divide  a  job  among  more 
laborers  or  more  days  than  are  necessary,  just  so  long 
will  co-operative  good-will  between  employers  and 
employed  in  producing  the  just  quantity  of  salable 
goods  be  impossible,  and  just  so  long  will  the  hap- 
piness in  work,  which  illuminates  and  vivifies  all  the 
higher  human  employments,  be  impossible  in  em- 
ployments   subject    to   union    control. 

The  employer,  however,  needs  the  same  sentiment 
of  good-will  at  the  core  of  his  business  life.  With- 
out it,  the  world  is  for  him  a  hostile  camp.  His 
happiness  is  wrecked,  or  greatly  impaired,  if  he  feels 
that  he  is  hated  or  despised,  or  is  conscious  that  he 
has  done  nothing  to  promote  the  well-being  of  the 
people  who  have  been  dependent  on  his  skill  and 
good  judgment. 

So  far  as  true  happiness  is  concerned,  no  increase 
of  his  wealth,  no  exercise  of  arbitrary  power,  and  no 
recreations,  amusements  or  bodily  pleasures  can  possi- 
bly compensate  him  for  the  loss  or  absence  of  the 
good-will  of  his  employe.  The  habitual  hostility  of 
those  who  have  labored  under  his  guidance  is  fatal 
to  his  real  comfort  and  content. 

92 


FORCE    AND     EXCLUSION     POLICIES 
DOOMED. 


There  is  a  singular  unanimity  in  the  representative 
expressions  of  pubHc  opinion  just  now  on  the  issue 
of  organized  labor's  demand  for  exclusive  preference 
for  employment,  on  the  sole  ground  of  union  mem- 
bership. We  have  selected  at  random  and  grouped 
together  this  week  three  recent  utterances  of  impar- 
tial fairness  and  solid  logic,  apropos  of  different 
topics  and  occasions,  but  each  sounding  the  same 
wholesome  note.  'The  closed  shop  is  the  one  demand 
made  by  the  labor  organizations  which  is  contributing 
most  largely  to  the  growth  of  an  antagonistic  public 
opinion,"  declares  the  Wall  Street  Journal  in  the  edi- 
torial, ''No  Monopoly  of  Labor."  And  Dean  Hodges, 
in  an  address  upon  points  of  agreement  between  the 
church  and  the  labor  movement,  affirms  that  "The 
corporation  which  opposes  the  organization  of  its 
men,  and  the  union  which  seeks  by  compulsion  to 
crowd  the  non-unionist  out  of  the  trade,  are  contend- 
ing against  universal  laws  of  human  nature."  The 
Boston  Herald,  discussing  the  Cripple  Creek  infernal- 
machine  atrocity,  which  comes  as  the  last  damning 
indictment  of  force  and  exclusion  policies,  states  its 
belief  without  any  ifs  or  buts  that  "The  right  of  men 
to  work  for  wages  satisfactory,  or,  at  any  rate, 
acceptable  to  them,  will  be  established  in  the  end, 
however   peremptorily   it   may   be   denied." 

It   has  become   one   of   the   most    familiar    slogans, 

93 


both  of  cheap  demagogues  and  of  honest  zealots 
laboring  under  a  misinterpretation  of  industrial  rela- 
tions, that  our  modern  capitalism  exalts  the  dollar 
above  the  man.  Whether  the  precise  language  is  in 
favor  in  all  quarters  of  the  so-called  "radical  camp" 
or  not,  the  accepted  belief  and  teaching  is  that  the 
net  result  of  our  individualistic  society  is  to  "crucify 
mankind  upon  a  cross  of  gold."  We  do  not  recall, 
however,  that  even  the  most  soulless  of  modern  capi- 
talistic interests  have  been  shown  guilty  of  wanton 
and  deliberate  taking  of  human  lives,  in  furtherance 
of  demands  or  pretensions  devoid  of  either  legal  or 
economic  or,  for  that  matter,  of  ethical  right.  But 
what  shall  be  said  of  the  perversion  of  labor  union 
principles  and  practices  away  from  the  standards  for 
which  that  movement  might  and  ought  to  stand,  to 
the  new  position  that  certain  heretofore  acknowledged 
"rights  of  man"  shall  not  be  recognized  in  the  case 
of  any  who  do  not  choose  to  become  associated  with 
this  or  that  purely  voluntary  organization? 

When  a  man  is  assaulted,  maimed,  perhaps  his 
home  blown  up,  his  wife  and  children  insulted  and 
harassed  on  the  streets,  and  himself,  it  may  be,  foully 
murdered  at  the  end  of  the  chapter,  which  is  being 
exalted  above  the  other,  the  man  or  the  15  or  20 
cents  extra  daily  wages  for  which  the  union  may 
happen  to  be  contending?  In  the  case  of  the  Cripple 
Creek  assassins,  for  example;  however  the  mine 
owners  of  Colorado  may  have  been  inclined  to 
prize  the  dollar  of  profit  above  the  man  in  the  work- 
ings, let  it  not  be  overlooked  that  it  remained  for 

94 


the  Cripple  Creek  representatives  of  the  "masses"  to 
rate  human  Hfe  cheaper  than  a  union  card. 


NO  MONOPOLY  OF  LABOR. 


editorial:     wall  street  journal. 


More  and  more  it  has  become  clear  that  the  issue 
of  the  closed  shop  cannot  be  made  good  by  the  labor 
organizations.  Public  opinion,  which  on  the  whole 
inclines  in  favor  of  the  labor  unions,  as  regards  their 
right  of  organization  and  collective  bargaining  as  to 
wages  and  hours  of  labor,  is  strongly  opposed  to  their 
demand  for  the  closed  shop.  Moreover,  the  courts 
are  deciding  against  the  labor  unions  in  cases  involv- 
ing this  issue.  In  the  well-known  Kellogg  switch- 
board case  of  Chicago,  the  Appellate  Court  of  Illi- 
nois has  decided  against  the  labor  organizations 
which  ordered  a  strike  when  the  Kellogg  Company 
refused  to  make  its  factory  a  closed  shop,  and  which 
picketed  the  factory  when  the  strike  was  begun  in 
order  to  prevent  the  company  from  employing  new 
men  to  take  the  place  of  the  strikers.  The  court  held 
that  the  action  of  the  labor  organizations  constituted 
criminal  conspiracy,  and  that  each  conspirator  was 
responsible  for  the  acts  of  every  other  conspirator. 
Moreover,  it  showed  that  the  presence  of  the  pickets 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  preventing  the  new  em- 
ployes of  the  company  from  remaining  in  its  employ 
was  in  itself  intimidation,  even  though  no  actual 
force  was  used. 

This   decision,   it   will   be   observed,   covers   several 

95 


important  points,  involving  the  question  of  strikes, 
boycotts  and  intimidation.  But  the  main  feature  is 
the  fact  that  the  whole  controversy  was  caused  by  the 
refusal  of  the  company  to  close  its  shop  against  all 
non-union  men.  There  is  no  question  whatever  that 
the  closed  shop  issue  which  the  labor  organizations 
are  pushing  so  vigorously  is  the  one  demand  made  by 
the  labor  organizations  which  is  contributing  most 
largely  to  the  growth  of  an  antagonistic  public  opin- 
ion. The  organization  of  employers  which  is  going 
on  throughout  the  country  would  have  comparatively 
little  significance  but  for  this  issue  of  closed  shop 
which  brings  to  it  a  large  measure  of  public  support. 
As  a  whole,  it  may  safely  be  said  that  the  people  of 
the  United  States  are  with  the  labor  unions  so  far  as 
their  organization  is  concerned,  and  in  respect  to  their 
demand  for  better  wages  and  better  conditions  of 
work,  both  of  which  produce  a  higher  quality  of 
product.  But  when  they  go  so  far  as  to  seek  an 
absolute  monopoly  of  labor  by  demanding  of  their 
employers  that  no  one  not  a  member  of  the  unions 
shall  be  employed,  they  strike  at  the  sentiment  of 
fair  play  and  love  of  liberty  which  prevails  among  the 
great  body  of  the  people. 


FAILURE    OF    COMPULSION. 


FROM    ADDRESS   BY   DEAN    HODGES   OF   CAMBRIDGE,    MASS. 


We  (the  church)  have  tried  the  policy  of  compul- 
sion to  the  uttermost,  and  we  assert  as  the  total  result 
of  our  experience  that  it  is  a  policy  of  tragic  blunder. 

96 


We  tried  it  in  all  honesty  of  purpose,  for  the  general 
good,  with  a  clear  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God.  It 
seemed  to  us,  as  it  seems  to-day  to  many  a  union, 
that  it  was  the  only  thing  to  do. 

Institutionalism  and  individualism  are  alike  or- 
dained of  God.  He  has  implanted  in  our  souls  the 
instinct  of  association  and  the  instinct  of  personal  in- 
dependence. They  are  both  sacred.  They  must 
be  maintained  together.  Men  must  be  permitted  to 
enter  with  all  freedom  into  any  kind  of  legal  com- 
bination. They  must  also  be  freely  permitted,  if  they 
prefer,  to  stay  outside  and  live  in  their  own  way. 

The  corporation  which  opposes  the  organization  of 
its  men,  and  the  union  which  seeks  by  compulsion  to 
crowd  the  non-unionist  out  of  the  trade,  are  contend- 
ing against  universal  laws  of  human  nature.  It  is 
like  contending  against  the  law  of  gravitation.  The 
church  has  partly  learned  this  lesson;  the  union  is 
diligently  studying  it.  It  is  going  through  the  same 
experience;  it  will  reach  the  same  conclusion. 


^    FEATURE    OF    THE    COLORADO    SITUA- 
TION  TO   BE   EMPHASIZED. 


editorial:     boston  evening  transcript. 


A  feature  of  the  Colorado  situation  to  which  little 

ittention  has  been  drawn  is  the  distinction,  both  in 

•rganization   and   underlying  principles,   between   the 

.Vestern  Federation  of  Miners  and  the  main  body  of 

the  labor  movement  in  this  country  as  represented  by 

97 


the  American  Federation  of  Labor.  The  one  is  ag- 
gressively committed  to  socialism  and  is  avowedly 
working  toward  a  socialistic  control  of  Colorado  in- 
dustries ;  the  other  stands  squarely  on  the  platform  of 
trade  unionism,  which  presupposes  and  upholds  a 
social  order  based  upon  private  ownership  and  em- 
ployment for  wages. 

It  is  true,  the  American  Federation  voted  $1000  to 
the  support  of  the  striking  miners  in  Colorado  at  the 
convention  held  in  this  city  last  November,  but  it  is 
also  true  that  an  effort  to  make  the  contribution 
$5,000  failed,  and  that  the  aid  granted  was  only  on 
the  ground  that  the  Colorado  contest  was  declared  to 
be  for  "eight  hours,"  the  cause  par  excellence  to 
which  trade  unionism  is  committed  heart  and  soul,  as 
the  ultimate  goal  anywhere  and  everywhere.  The 
contribution  was  made,  further,  in  special  recogni- 
tion of  the  fact  that  the  general  Colorado  situation 
included  the  coal  miners'  strike  in  Trinidad,  and  in 
response  to  a  special  request  made  in  behalf  of  these 
men  that  encouragement  be  extended  to  their  neigh- 
bors near  at  hand  in  the  metalliferous  mines. 

But  the  Western  Federation  is  fully  aware  that, 
while  ardent  socialists  are  not  wanting  in  the  American 
Federation  by  any  means,  the  overwhelming  trend  is 
wholly  at  odds  with  the  ulterior  ends  of  the  mountain 
state's  movement.  The  official  organ  of  the  Western 
Federation,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  has  attacked 
both  individuals  and  policies  in  the  trade  union  move- 
ment proper,  regarding  that  or  any  other  movement 
which  seeks  to  better  industrial  conditions  along  op- 

98 


portunist  lines  as  a  positive  hindrance  to  the  ushering 
in  of  Utopia.  This  is  the  position  of  the  radical  wing 
of  the  socialist  propaganda  everywhere.  It  has  no 
patience  with  conciliation  or  arbitration ;  on  the  con- 
trary, prefers  and  indorses  the  anti-union  campaign 
of  the  employers'  associations  on  the  express  ground, 
as  the  editor  of  the  Daily  People,  New  York,  puts  it, 
that  "an  equitable  arrangement  can  only  be  effected 
by  allowing  the  class  struggle  full  scope ;  and  as  a 
means  to  this  ending  nothing  is  so  much  to  be  wel- 
comed as  the  straight-out  tactics"  of  the  employers' 
organizations.  ''Socialism  will  triumph  as  a  result." 
The  lack  of  harmony  between  the  Colorado  strikers 
and  the  American  Federation  is  not  grounded  entirely 
on  hostile  general  principles.  At  the  time  of  the  great 
Denver  "food  strike"  of  a  year  ago,  a  conference  was 
held  between  Secretary  Haywood  of  the  Western 
Federation  of  Miners,  David  Coates  of  the  American 
Labor  Union,  Max  Morris  of  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  and  delegates  from  various  local  unions, 
on  the  issue  of  a  sympathetic  strike  in  support  of  the 
breadmakcrs  and  teamsters.  Haywood  dominated  the 
meeting  and  carried  it  for  the  measure  proposed ;  Mr. 
Morris  opposed  the  step  to  the  last  ditch,  declared  for 
settling  the  local  troubles  between  those  directly  con- 
cerned, and  refused  to  involve  the  American  Federa- 
tion in  what  proved,  as  he  undoubtedly  foresaw,  a 
fiasco.  So  far  as  the  Western  Federation  was  con- 
cerned, the  food  strike  apparently  counted  simply  as 
one  pawn  in  the  game  to  capture  the  Colorado  labor 
movement  in  toto,  as  a  part  of  its  larger  purpose  ex- 

99 


pressed  in  the  formal  espousal  of  the  socialist  creed. 
The  American  Federation  stood  in  the  way  of  this 
ambitious  scheme,  and  so  far  as  its  influence  extends 
still  performs  that  public  service,  even  though  the 
national  organization  does  not  openly  antagonize  a 
struggle  ostensibly  being  waged  for  the  eight-hour 
day. 

So  well  is  this  understood  that  the  conviction  is  ex- 
pressed by  men  in  close  touch  with  the  situation  that 
the  dynamiting  element  among  the  Colorado  miners 
would  as  readily  apply  their  favorite  argument  to  Mr. 
Gompers  and  his  associates,  if  suitable  occasion  of- 
fered, as  to  the  mine  owners  and  non-union  workers 
on  the  ground.  However  this  may  be,  it  will 
strengthen  rather  than  weaken  the  general  cause  for 
which  the  American  Federation  stands  if  no  effort  is 
made  to  conceal  the  absence  of  any  real  fellowship 
with  the  Moyer-Haywood  organization,  or  to  offer 
excuses  for  the  miners'  share  of  responsibility  for  the 
series  of  brutal  outrages  at  Colorado  mines,  where 
the  eight-hour  day  already  prevails.  It  is  sought  in 
some  quarters  to  palliate  these  crimes  in  the  mining 
camps  on  the  singular  ground  that  the  smeltermen,  in 
whose  support  the  mine  strikes  were  called,  were  de- 
frauded of  short-hour  legislation  by  a  corrupt  lobby. 
That  charge  may  be  true,  but  if  the  "new  ethics"  of 
industrial  strife  puts  no  ban  on  retaliation  by  murder 
it  will  have  to  be  very  new  indeed  to  condone  the 
wholesale  slaughter  of  one  set  of  men  and  wrecking 
of  the  properties  of  another  set,  because  of  the  sins 
of  a  third  and  wholly  distinct  group. 

lOO 


TRADE     UNIONISM     IN     PUBLIC    EMPLOY- 
MENT   HALTED. 


One  of  the  anomalies  of  trade  unionism  is  the  de- 
mand for  ''closed  shops"  and  the  advocacy  of  mu- 
nicipal ownership,  when  it  is  inevitable  that  every 
industry  transferred  from  private  to  public  ownership 
will  become  an  "open  shop."  In  public  employment 
all  conditions  and  w^ages  of  labor  must  be  determined 
by  laws  and  ordinances.  No  law  excluding  non-union 
men  from  public  employment  can  stand  the  test  of  its 
constitutionality.  Wages  cannot  be  increased  nor 
hours  of  labor  shortened  at  the  demand  of  a  trade 
union.  The  fact  that  labor  union  men  have  under- 
taken to  enforce  their  demands  upon  municipal,  state 
and  the  national  governments  is  indisputable  evidence 
of  their  ignorance  of  the  law,  or  of  their  brazen  as- 
sumption that  fear  of  their  political  power  would 
make  public  officials  their  pliant  tools,  notwithstand- 
ing their  oaths  of  office.  Here  is  an  example.  The 
following  press  dispatch  was  sent  out  from  Chicago : 

"The  invasion  of  the  municipal  service  by  labor 
unions  was  to-day  ordered  brought  to  a  halt  by 
Mayor  Harrison,  who  made  the  following  declara- 
tion : 

"  Tn  the  mechanical  branches  of  the  city's  service, 
where  the  employe  is  simply  a  workingman.  it  is  all 
right  for  him  to  belong  to  a  union ;  but  where  a  man 
belongs  to  a  department,  like  the  firemen  or  police- 
men,  he   has   no   right   to   have  a  divided   allegiance. 

lOI 


He  must  owe  allegiance  to  only  one  master,  the  city 
of  Chicago/ 

"The  voicing  of  the  mayor's  sentiments  along  this 
line  was  occasioned  by  the  receipt  of  an  appeal  from 
the  engineers  of  the  fire  department,  asking  for  in- 
creased wages.  The  men  seeking  an  increase  are 
members  of  a  union." 

All  attempts  to  unionize  public  employment  prove 
the  incapacity  of  the  union  leaders  making  such  at- 
tempts. No  commander  of  sound  mind  will  ever  in- 
vite a  conflict  with  a  force  so  superior  to  his  own  as 
to  make  his  defeat  inevitable.  The  fact  that  labor 
union  members  do  provoke  conflicts  with  municipal, 
state  and  the  national  governments  shows  that  the 
leniency  shown  to  their  conduct  has  inflated  some  of 
them  with  the  idea  that  they  are  bigger  than  the 
government.  This  is  bad  enough,  but  it  is  not  as 
bad  as  the  fact  that  the  "divided  allegiance"  to  which 
Mayor  Harrison  refers  often  induces  inefficiency  and 
destroys  discipline  in  unionized  industries.  Why 
should  any  employer  want  a  "closed  shop"  under  such 
conditions  ? 


WHOSE  FAULT  IS  THIS? 


How  does  it  happen  that  there  are  no  violations  of 
law  when  there  are  no  strikes?  Non-union  men  are 
never  found  plotting  to  rob  other  workmen  of  their 
right  to  labor  or  to  punish  employers  for  employing 
workmen  not  of  their  class. 

Temporizing  with  lawlessness  always  induces  more 

102 


lawlessness.  The  less  intelligent  men  are,  the  more 
necessary  it  is  to  use  the  arguments  of  force  rather  than 
the  arguments  of  reason  to  bring  them  into  subjection 
to  the  law.  Those  who  use  force  instead  of  reason 
must  be  dealt  with  by  force.  If  this  is  not  done  they 
believe  themselves  superior  to  those  who  do  not  use 
force.  The  leniency  shown  to  lawlessness  when  com- 
mitted against  non-union  men  is  responsible  for  the 
growth  of  lawlessness  among  union  men  and  their 
sympathizers.  But  for  such  leniency,  there  would 
never  have  been  an  occasion  for  sending  out  the  fol- 
lowing press  dispatch  from  New  York  City : 

"As  an  outcome  of  several  explosions  of  dynamite 
in  buildings  being  constructed  in  various  sections  of 
the  city,  every  large  structure  being  erected  is  now 
under  guard  of  police  and  private  detectives.  Rewards 
have  been  offered  by  the  Iron  League  for  the  appre- 
hension of  the  persons  involved,  but  so  far  no  clue  has 
been  found  as  to  their  identity." 

Laws  will  not  enforce  themselves.  When  those 
whose  duty  it  is  fail  to  enforce  the  law,  private  per- 
sons and  associations  must  do  it  or  anarchy  will  be 
established.  Here  is  evidence  that  this  must  be  done 
in  New  York  as  well  as  Colorado. 


THAT  "RIGHT  OF  CONTRACT"  PROBLEM. 


Rarely  has  a  problem  arisen  in  modern  industrial  ex- 
perience where  the  ideal  solution  was  less  apparent 
than  in  this  of  unrestrained  or  of  exclusive  employ- 
ment.    Tlie   "right  of  contract"   is  quotable  on  both 

103 


sides,  inasmuch  as  the  right  of  the  employer  to  make 
labor  contracts  with  union  men  only  would  seem  on 
the  face  of  it  to  be  equal  to  his  right  to  hire  only 
Germans  or  only  Americans  or  only  men  of  a  certain 
age  or  height,  if  his  interests  so  required.  And  the 
position  taken  by  Judge  Adams  in  his  recent  decision, 
that  a  contract  for  a  closed  shop  tends  to  a  labor 
monopoly,  seems  to  lack  completeness  in  that  it  does 
not  undertake  to  show  how  anything  in  the  relations 
between  one  employer — individual  or  corporation — 
and  his  or  its  employes  can  have  any  monopolistic  ef- 
fect with  reference  to  the  industry  as  a  whole.  Had 
the  case  involved  a  combination  of  employers,  agree- 
ing among  themselves  to  run  closed  shops  only,  the 
earmarks  of  monopoly  would  have  been  much  more 
obvious. 

These  things  do  not  necessarily  justify  the  closed 
shop;  they  simply  indicate  the  difficulties  of  over- 
throwing it  on  technical  lines.  If  exclusive  employ- 
ment of  union  members  actually  insured  superior 
service  and  better  relations  between  management  and 
men,  any  serious  effort  to  have  it  declared  illegal  and 
criminal  per  se  would  never  have  been  made.  As  it 
is,  the  open  shop  is  steadily  gaining  ground,  and  where 
the  open  shop  is  established  the  line  of  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  unions  becomes  the  securing  of  pledges 
not  to  discriminate  against  union  men  purely  because 
of  their  unionism.  With  an  open  field  to  both  union 
and  non-union,  the  shops  can  be  unionized  only 
through  the  efforts  of  the  union  among  the  employes, 
and  not  by  compulsion  applied  through  the  employer. 

104 


EMPLOYERS'    ASSOCIATIONS. 


editorial:    Chicago  tribune. 


As  the  Tribune  does  not  apprehend  the  overthrow 
of  the  constitution  through  associations  of  working- 
men,  so  it  does  not  anticipate  any  erosion  of  that  ad- 
mirable document  by  associations  of  employers.  The 
volunteer  private  detectives  whose  specialty  is  the  dis- 
covery of  burglars  climbing  in  through  the  window 
of  the  constitution's  back  porch  have  alarmed  the 
country — and  almost  themselves — by  their  talk  about 
sympathetic  strikes,  boycotts  and  persecuted  non- 
unionists.  In  Ray  Stannard  Baker's  article  in  the  cur- 
rent McClure's  they  will  find  their  consistency  chal- 
lenged by  a  collection  of  facts  with  regard  to  analo- 
gous actions  on  the  part  of  employers  in  associations 
assembled.  But  even  if  the  volunteer  private  detectives 
prefer  consistency  to  partisanship  and  begin  to  cry 
"wolf  on  the  front  door  step  as  well  as  on  the  back 
porch,  it  is  time  for  the  sober  senses  of  the  American 
people  to  tire  of  the  constant  magnification  of  business 
squabbles  into  constitutional  dangers.  The  constitu- 
tion, in  every  essential  sense,  is  ten  times  as  safe  as 
when  Jefferson  confessed  to  having  cracked  it. 

The  attempt  to  prevent  the  ''scab"  from  working 
as  he  pleases  is  said  to  be  a  violation  of  constitutional 
liberty.  Here  is  what  Mr.  Baker  says  about  the  pres- 
sure which  was  brought  to  bear  upon  "scab"  employ- 
ers in  San  Francisco :     "Certain  retail  dealers  in  meat 

105 


wished  to  continue  their  agreements  with  the  unions, 
but  the  wholesale  meat  dealers  cut  off  their  supplies 
and  refused  to  sell  them  any  meat  until  they  took  the 
union  labels  out  of  their  windows.  In  some  cases 
they  went  farther  than  this — refusing  to  supply  re- 
tailers who  supplied  restaurant  dealers  who  insisted 
on  dealing  with  the  unions/' 

The  boycott  is  said  to  be  a  violation  of  constitutional 
liberty.  Mr.  Baker  shows  how  the  boycott  is  used 
by  the  employers  of  Denver.  The  Rocky  Mountain 
News  and  the  Times  had  adopted  an  editorial  policy 
which  the  Citizens'  Alliance  regarded  as  too  favorable 
to  the  union.  Thereupon  the  Citizens'  Alliance  passed 
a  resolution  requesting  the  Denver  Advertisers'  Asso- 
ciation "so  to  place  its  advertising  matter  as  to  assist 
in  upbuilding  instead  of  tearing  down  business  in- 
terests." And  thereupon  the  Denver  Advertisers'  As- 
sociation sent  a  committee  to  the  Rocky  Mountain 
News  and  to  the  Times,  informing  those  papers  that 
the  resolution  of  the  Citizens'  Alliance  would  be  the 
basis  of  its  action  in  its  relations  with  the  daily  press. 

The  sympathetic  strike  is  said  to  be  a  violation  of 
constitutional  liberty.  Mr.  Baker  gives  instance  after 
instance  of  the  use  of  the  sympathetic  lockout.  The 
consequences  of  the  sympathetic  lockout  can  be  seen 
with  particular  clearness  in  the  case  of  A.  D.  Olcott 
of  Idaho  Springs.  Olcott,  though  a  man  of  family 
and  of  unblemished  personal  reputation,  was  a  "labor 
agitator,"  and  was  put  on  the  "unfair  list"  of  the 
Idaho  Springs  employers.  He  was  locked  out  from 
position  after  position,  and  was  entirely  deprived  of 

1 06 


the  means  of  livelihood,  while  at  the  same  time  he 
was  held  in  town  by  court  bond. 

All  of  which  means  that  both  sides  of  the  labor  con- 
troversy are  like  both  sides  to  any  other  controversy. 
They  sometimes  employ  unjust  and  illegal  methods. 
When  they  employ  those  methods  they  ought  to  be 
punished.  But  neither  side  has  the  right  to  accuse 
the  other  of  any  fell  designs  on  the  constitution.  The 
constitution  does  not  fall  to  pieces  every  time  a  selfish 
man  or  a  selfish  association  of  men  oversteps  the  limits 
of  common  or  statutory  law.  Isn't  it  possible  for  an 
American  to  get  into  a  quarrel  with  another  American 
without  becoming  convinced  that  the  air  is  full  of 
constitutional  wreckage  ? 


ENGLISH  UNIONS  AND  THE  OPEN  SHOP. 


editorial:    new  york  journal  of  commerce. 


The  National  Civic  Federation  publishes  in  its 
Monthly  Review  answers  from  the  secretaries  of  sev- 
eral of  the  leading  trades  unions  of  England  to  re- 
quests for  information  regarding  the  position  taken  by 
those  unions  upon  what  we  call  the  open  shop  question. 
From  these  it  appears  that  in  the  trades  represented 
the  organizations  are  more  complete  and  are  stronger 
than  most  of  them  in  this  country,  but  what  is  chiefly 
noteworthy  is  that  they  rely  upon  the  extent  of  their 
control  of  labor  in  the  industries  and  their 
legitimate  advantage  to  the  workman,  having  aban- 
doned all  attempt  at  coercion  in  increasing  their  mem- 

107 


bership  and  all  contest  against  the  employment  of  non- 
union men.  They  try  to  get  the  best  workmen  into  the 
organization  by  making  it  to  their  interest  to  join,  and 
to  make  union  men  preferred  by  employers. 

The  secretary  of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  En- 
gineers, which  includes  what  we  call  machinists  in  this 
country,  says  that  it  is  stipulated  in  their  agreements 
with  employers  that  they  will  work  with  non-union 
men ;  and  that  was  the  practice  even  before  that  form 
of  agreement  was  adopted  seven  years  ago.  Then,  he 
says,  "we  relied  upon  moral  suasion  in  regard  to  non- 
unionists,"  and  he  expresses  the  opinion  that  "forced 
men  are  no  good  to  an  organization  which  they  may 
be  compelled  to  join."  The  secretary  of  the  Amalga- 
mated Society  of  Paper  Makers  writes :  "Our  society 
does  not  object  to  our  members  working  with  non- 
unionists,  providing  the  latter  work  under  the  same 
conditions  and  receive  the  same  wages  as  themselves. 
Consequently  it  has  not  been  necessary  to  make  any 
agreement  with  the  employers  respecting  the  same.  In 
justice  to  the  employers,  I  may  say  the  majority  prefer 
unionists,  and  when  requiring  them  they  apply  to  the 
society."  The  secretary  of  the  Iron  Founders'  Society 
takes  occasion  to  comment  upon  the  weakness  of 
American  unions,  and  says  that  in  England,  in  the  case 
of  a  strike  or  lockout,  they  "refrain  from  picketing, 
leaving  employers  to  employ  whom  they  choose."  Re- 
garding non-union  men  he  says :  "We  let  them  severely 
alone,  believing  that  they  do  our  cause  more  good  in- 
side a  struck  shop  than  outside."  This  belief  is  based 
upon  the  alleged  inferiority  of  the  non-union  labor  and 

io8 


the  business  necessity  of  employers  hiring  union  men 
to  get  their  work  satisfactorily  done.  He  does  not 
think  favorably  of  "working  mixed,"  as  he  calls  it; 
that  is,  with  union  and  non-union  men  in  the  same 
shops,  because  he  does  not  think  it  to  the  advantage  of 
either  the  employers  or  the  workmen,  but  they  make 
no  fight  against  non-union  labor. 

The  general  secretary  of  the  Associated  Iron  and 
Steel  Workers  of  Great  Britain  says  that  they  have 
had  the  policy  of  the  open  shop  for  thirty  years.     At 
some  works  practically  all  the  men  belong  to  the  union, 
at  others   a  part  in  varying  proportions.     The  non- 
union men  are  ignored.    They  have  no  voice  in  settling 
the  terms  of  employment,  but  are  expected  to  abide  by 
them,  and  where  they  do  not  the  employers  usually  dis- 
pense with  their  services,  preferring  to  deal  with  the 
organization   and   have   the   agreements   apply   to   all 
their  workmen.     This  secretary  says:     'T  should  be 
sorry  to  see  any  policy  adopted  which  would  bring 
about  the  distinct  change  you  have  in  your  American 
mills  of  union  and  non-union."     Similar  reports  are 
given    of   the    weavers'    and    spinners'    organizations. 
Union  and  non-union  men  are  employed  alike  and  on 
equal  terms  without  any  conflict  between  them.     The 
unions   rely   upon   the  benefits   their  members   derive 
from  organization  and  seek  to  secure  the  adhesion  of 
all  the  best  workmen  in  their  trades,  to  make  them- 
selves indispensable  to  employers  and  to  have  all  dis- 
putes and  difficulties  settled  by  amicable  negotiations, 
with  final  resort  to  arbitration.     One  of  the  writers 
says  that  the  system  is  the  development  of  many  years' 

109 


experience,  and  it  seems  to  him  that  the  methods  pur- 
sued in  this  country  are  similar  to  those  in  England 
twenty-five  and  fifty  years  ago.  Some  English  unions 
are  less  liberal  and  tolerant  than  others  and  a  few  try 
to  avoid  having  non-union  men  in  the  same  shops  with 
their  members,  but  on  the  whole  they  have  advanced 
beyond  the  crude  stage  of  arbitrary  and  violent  meth- 
ods and  rely  upon  the  economic  advantages  of  organ- 
ized action. 


THE  OPEN  SHOP  ISSUE  SETTLING  ITSELF. 


editorial:     boston  transcript. 


It  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  the  Democratic  con- 
vention intended  to  fly  in  the  face  of  organized  labor 
by  a  declaration  for  the  open  shop,  yet  one  of  the 
planks  scoring  the  deportation  tactics  of  the  Colorado 
authorities  might  have  been  borrowed  from  an  em- 
ployers' association  platform,  the  point  of  the  im- 
peachment lying  entirely  "in  the  application  on  't:" 

"Constitutional  guarantees  are  violated  whenever 
any  citizen  is  denied  the  right  to  labor,  acquire  and  en- 
joy property  or  reside  where  interests  or  inclination 
may  determine." 

Denial  of  the  "right  to  labor  ....  where  interests 
or  inclination  may  determine"  is  the  precise  iniquity 
charged  against  the  closed  shop,  and  it  will  be  sur- 
prising if  those  who  meant  to  stand  on  one  end  only 
of  this  plank  do  not  find  the  other  end  tipping  up  with 
annoying  frequency  and  ease.     Here  is  verified  again 

TIG 


the  old  difficulty  of  formulating  rules  of  freedom  for 
one  class  or  emergency  which  it  is  not  desired  to  have 
applied  to  other  people  in  similar  situations. 

But  the  closed  or  open  shop  is  not  an  issue  for  politi- 
cal settlement.     That  grows  plainer  as  the  merits  of 
the  matter  are  forced  into  the  open  through  the  pres- 
sure of  free  discussion.     Up  to  date  it  cannot  be  said 
that  the  contestants   for  either  theory  have  won  the 
whole  case,  either  in  ethics  or  economics,  but  happily 
the  dispute  is  passing  over  from  a  prior  dogmatism  to 
the  stage  of  discrimination.    Just  now  comes  an  inter- 
esting sign  of  this  progress  toward  a  more  intelligent 
understanding  in  the  form  of  a  symposium  on  the  sub- 
ject in  the  latest  number  of  the  Monthly  Review,  is- 
sued by  the  National  Civic  Federation.    Apropos  of  the 
recent  decision  of  Judge  Adams  of  Illinois,  that  a  con- 
tract to  maintain  a  closed  shop  is  illegal  and  criminal, 
the  Review  has  brought  together  the  critical  views  of 
a  group  of  lawyers  and  publicists  representing  a  con- 
siderable  variety   of   opinion,   but   showing   a   strong 
majority  leaning  to  the  idea  that  freedom  of  contract 
ought   to   imply  that,   while  intimidation   of  an   em- 
ployer to  compel  the  closed  shop  has  no  good  defense, 
his  right  to  make  such  an  arrangement  when  he  be- 
lieves it  to  his  advantage  should  be  held  equal  to  the 
undoubted   right  of  workmen  to  refuse  employment 
with  any  but  union  men. 

Mr.  Louis  D.  Brandeis  of  this  city  stated  this  point 
of  view  most  clearly  of  any.    On  the  lines  of  liberty 
the  course  to  follow,  he  thinks,  will  include,  first: 
"Liberty  on  the  part  of  the  employer  to  agree  with 

III 


the  union  for  a  closed  shop  whenever  the  inducements 
offered  are  sufficient  to  lead  him  to  voluntarily  renounce 
for  a  time  his  absolute  freedom  to  choose  such  work- 
men as  he  pleases.  Then,  a  recognition  by  the  unions 
that  their  interests  will  be  best  subserved  by  omitting 
all  attempts  to  restrict  the  choice  of  the  employes, 
and  devoting  their  efforts  to  increasing  the  attractions 
of  unionism  for  the  workmen,  and  to  removing  the 
incidents  of  unionism  most  objectionable  to  the  em- 
ployer." 

On  that  basis  the  problem  would  solve  itself  with- 
out either  political  or  judicial  intervention,  and  largely 
according  to  the  conditions  in  various  trades  and  lo- 
calities from  time  to  time.  For  example,  elsewhere  in 
the  same  number  of  the  Federation  Review  it  is  told 
just  how  the  threatened  teamsters'  strike  in  New  York 
a  few  weeks  ago  was  averted,  the  most  suggestive 
point  being  that  the  dangerous  rock  of  closed  or  open 
shop  was  safely  escaped  by  an  agreement  that  the 
truck  owners  should  make  no  discrimination  against 
a  driver  because  of  his  membership  in  the  union,  and 
on  the  other  hand  the  drivers  in  handling  goods 
should  not  discriminate  between  union  and  non-union 
employing  shippers.  These  were  items  in  a  signed 
agreement  which  also  granted  increased  wages  and 
shorter  hours  and  remains  in  force  one  year. 

Such  an  arrangement  throws  the  burden  of  keeping 
a  trade  unionized  wholly  upon  the  ability  of  the  or- 
ganization to  present  and  prove  to  non-unionists  the 
advantages  of  membership  by  legitimate  methods  and 
without  the  aid  of  persecution  or  compulsion  applied 

112 


through  the  employer.  This  is  probably  the  ideal  so- 
lution of  the  whole  issue,  but  merely  to  state  its  terms 
shows  how  completely  success  depends  upon  the  good 
faith  and  fairness  of  spirit  in  which  both  sides  live  up 
to   the   self-imposed  and   agreed  limitations. 


WHY  SO  MANY  STRIKES? 


In  an  article  in  this  issue  under  the  title  of  "Labor 
Strikes  Always  With  Us,"  a  statistical  comparison 
is  made  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
for  the  nine  years,  1892- 1900,  showing  the  number  of 
strikes,  the  number  of  workmen  directly  affected  and 
the  number  in  relation  to  population,  etc.  This  com- 
parison shows  that  strikes  have  no  well-defined  eco- 
nomic basis.  It  is  popularly  supposed  that  strikes  re- 
sult from  disagreements  as  to  wages.  The  wage  ques- 
tion causes  but  few  strikes.  Disputes  over  shop  regu- 
lations, attempts  to  force  a  recognition  of  the  union, 
and,  we  regret  to  say  it,  desire  to  show  their  power 
on  the  part  of  labor  leaders,  are  more  often  causes  of 
strikes  than  the  wage  question.  If  employers  want  to 
know  when  to  look  for  a  strike  let  them  keep  tab  on 
the  election  dates  of  the  officers  of  unions  with  whom 
they  deal.  Many  autocrats  have  declared  war  to  save 
their  crown.  Many  labor  leaders  have  involved  their 
unions  in  strife  to  save  or  tighten  their  hold  on  power. 
The  most  dangerous  man  in  the  industrial  world  is  the 
professional  labor  agitator.  It  is  his  business  to  spy 
out  and  seize  upon  every  cause  of  friction  between 
employes  and  those  under  whose  immediate  direction 
they  work,  be  that  cause  ever  so  trivial,  and  magnify 

113 
8 


it  into  a  cause  of  war.  One  of  the  commonest  experi- 
ences of  employers  is  to  have  these  agitators,  walking 
delegates  or  business  agents,  attempt  to  fix  up  a  set- 
tlement in  a  way  to  cause  the  union  members  to  be- 
lieve great  things  have  been  accomplished  for  them 
by  their  vigilant  champions. 

There  is  more  human  nature  than  economics  in 
labor  troubles.  Employers  and  employes  are  both 
human,  with  like  passions.  It  is  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world  for  men  under  orders  to  be  ex- 
tremely sensitive  to  the  manner  in  which  orders  are 
given,  the  bearing  toward  them  of  those  under  whose 
immediate  direction  they  work.  When  a  man  feels 
himself  to  be  as  intelligent  and  competent  as  the  man 
selected  to  supervise  his  work  he  is  inevitably  resent- 
ful whenever  an  unnecessary  or  undignified  exhibition 
of  authority  is  made  by  the  corporal  who  touches  el- 
bows with  him  in  the  ranks.  This  case  is  stated  in 
the  following  letter: 

'Wheeling,   W.   Va. 

''Editor  Public  Policy: — Having  read  with  much 
interest  your  different  editorials  on  the  outcome  of 
amalgamated  labor,  allow  me  to  ask  a  pertinent  ques- 
tion. Has  it  occurred  to  you,  in  your  many  interviews 
on  the  subject,  that  the  fact  exists  that  not  less  than 
80  per  cent  of  the  difficulties  that  arise  are  by  reason 
of  subordinate  officers  in  charge,  who,  clothed  with 
temporary  authority,  assume  to  dictate  to  men  con- 
versant with  their  work,  and  working  truly  and  sin- 
cerely for  the  interest  of  their  employer?  By  reason 
of  their  incompetency,  so-called  managers,  in  an  effort 

114 


to  show  their  authority,  dictate  without  knowledge  to 
men  more  competent  than  they  to  fill  their  different 
positions.  As  man  to  man,  competent  employes  will 
not  stand  to  be  dictated  to  by  such  incompetency. 
With  a  correction  on  this  line — military,  if  you  please 
— many  of  the  difficulties  that  have  arisen  in  the  past 
can  be  corrected.  Yours  very  respectfully, 

"Frank  G.  Caldwell.'' 

No  man  is  more  conscious  of  the  necessity  of  dis- 
cipline than  the  competent  workman.  The  working- 
man's  worst  enemy  is  the  man  who  abuses  his  privi- 
leges and  thus  renders  drastic  regulations  necessary. 
Liberty  is  always  lost  by  the  conduct  of  those  who 
mistake  liberty  for  license. 

An  employer  does  himself  an  injustice  who  does 
not  cause  every  man  in  his  employ  to  feel  that  he  has 
a  friend  in  the  person  of  his  employer.  One  of  the 
losses  caused  by  modern  organization  of  industries  is 
the  loss  of  personal  acquaintance  and  interest  between 
employers  and  employes.  But  this  need  not  destroy 
a  feeling  of  confidence  on  the  part  of  employes,  in  the 
good  judgment  and  good- will  of  their  employers, 
something  akin  to  the  love  of  a  private  soldier  for  his 
commander,  whom  he  has  only  occasionally  seen,  with 
whom  he  has  never  spoken,  whose  hand  he  has  never 
touched. 

There  is  a  saying  that  "courtesy  costs  nothing  and 
buys  everything."  There  are  trouble  breeders  in  the 
ranks.  There  are  trouble  breeders  in  all  grades  of 
officials,  from  lowest  to  highest.  While  human  nature 
is  as  it  is,  there  will  be  those  who.  while  they  wear  the 

11=; 


form  of  men,  have  no  sense  of  honor,  justice  or  hu- 
man sympathy.  Such  men  need  a  master  whom  they 
know  will  knock  them  down  on  the  slightest  provoca- 
tion. A  blow  is  the  only  thing  that  reaches  their 
sense  of  feeling.  Fortunately  such  men  are  few. 
They  can  be  easily  mastered  when  those  with  whom 
they  come  in  contact  are  made  of  the  right  sort  of  stuff. 

It  was  our  good  fortune  to  have  opportunity  to 
observe,  on  some  occasion,  every  general  who  com- 
manded a  Union  army  during  the  Civil  War.  We 
heard  many  complaints  regarding,  and  saw  some  in- 
justice in,  the  conduct  of  subordinate  officers  toward 
those  immediately  under  their  command,  but  we  never 
saw  or  heard  of  a  commanding  general  who  showed 
disrespect  toward  a   self-respecting  private  soldier. 

We  would  say  to  every  employer,  cause  every  man 
in  your  employ  to  feel  that  you  respect  him  as  a  man 
and  that  he  can  always  appeal  to  you,  with  confidence 
in  your  judgment  and  good-will,  if  he  feels  himself 
wronged  by  those  to  whom  you  necessarily  intrust  the 
management  of  details.  No  general  was  ever  quite  as 
great  before  as  he  was  after  he  had  shown  some  mark 
of  respect  to  a  private  soldier.  And  the  greatest  man 
of  them  all,  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  armies  and 
navies  of  the  United  States — Abraham  Lincoln — felt  a 
sympathy,  of  which  true  greatness  only  is  capable,  for 
the  men  in  the  ranks.  His  great  heart  gave  a  kindly 
light  to  his  eyes,  a  kindly  tone  to  his  voice,  a  kindly 
grasp  to  his  hand.  I  have  seen  him  move  about 
among  those  whose  blood  had  been  given  that  the 
nation  might  live.    A  look,  a  word,  a  touch  from  him 

ii6 


was  an  experience  that  no  private  soldier  can  ever 
forget.  We  honor  the  man  who  earns  a  hving  by 
honest  work.  We  ask  no  favors  for  him.  He  needs 
none.  He  is  self-respecting  and  self-sustained.  His 
rank  is  that  of  an  honest  man,  the  noblest  work  of 
God.  Make  this  bargain  with  him  and  he  will  not 
fail  to   fulfill  his  part  of  the  obligation : 

While  we  live  and  work  together  each  shall  do  his 
part  well.  Each  shall  give  the  justice  he  desires  to 
receive.  Neither  shall  be  condemned  without  being 
heard  in  his  own  defense. 

The  motive  of  industry  is  money  making.  The 
motive  of  life  is  good-will.  That  which  one  cannot 
justly  do,  another  cannot  justly  require.  When  the 
requirements  of  justice  are  understood  and  complied 
with  strikes  w^ill  cease  to  be  with  us. 


LABOR  STRIKES   ALWAYS  WITH  US. 


editorial:  wall  street  journal. 


Statistics  of  strikes  in  Great  Britain  become  of 
greater  significance  when  brought  into  comparison 
with  corresponding  statistics  in  the  United  States. 
The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  labor 
troubles  in  the  two  countries  and  the  number  of  work- 
men involved  during  the  nine  years  from  1892  to  1900: 

Nine  years,   1892- 1900: 

Strikes  and  Workmen  di- 

lockouts.  rectly  afTected. 

United  States 12.344  3»55i»492 

Great  Britain 7,603  2.109.000 

117 


Of  all  the  labor  troubles  in  the  two  countries,  those 
of  the  United  States  constitute  over  sixty  per  cent, 
both  as  to  the  number  of  strikes  and  lockouts  and  as 
to  number  of  workmen  involved,  but  in  proportion  to 
the  population  of  the  two  countries,  the  number  of 
workmen  affected  by  the  disputes  was  practically  the 
same,  so  that  there  would  seem  to  be  no  relation  be- 
tween the  free  trade  policy  of  England  and  the  pro- 
tective policy  of  the  United  States  and  any  liability  to 
strikes.  Both  are  on  a  level,  so  far  as  that  is  con- 
cerned. 

There  is  another  striking  fact.  The  number  of 
labor  troubles  in  each  country  changes  little  from 
year  to  year,  although  in  both  there  is  a  great  differ- 
ence in  the  number  of  workmen  involved.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  account  for  these  differences  by  economic  con- 
ditions, for  there  are  often  as  many  large  strikes  in 
"fat"  years  as  there  are  in  "lean."  For  instance,  in 
this  country  there  were  660,000  men  thrown  out  of 
employment  by  strikes  in  1894,  which  was  a  year  of 
depression.  But  there  were  408,000  thus  affected  in 
1897  and  417,000  in  1899,  which  were  years  of  pros- 
perity. In  1884,  which  was  a  panic  year,  only  147,- 
000  workmen  were  thrown  out  by  strikes,  while  in 
1886,  when  business  was  reviving,  there  were  508,000 
thus  involved. 

A  review  of  the  past  twenty  years  goes  to  show  that 
the  labor  problem,  like  the  poor,  is  always  with  us. 
It  is  a  chronic  condition.  It  is  the  result  of  the  eter- 
nal struggle  of  man  to  better  his  condition.  The  labor 
situation  which  has  lately  been  so  distressing  and  in 

118 


Colorado  assumed  a  malignant  type,  is  now  improv- 
ing. Those  who  think  that  conditions  were  never  so 
bad  as  now,  so  far  as  the  social  problem  is  concerned, 
ought  to  take  a  glance  backward  and  compare  the 
state  of  things  to-day  with  the  situation  ten  and 
twenty  years  ago.  They  would  then  discover  how 
great  has  been  the  progress. 


BOYCOTT  AGAINST  EMPLOYER   PERPETU- 
ALLY   ENJOINED. 


DECISION     BY     JUDGE    JOHN     HUNT    OF    THE     SUPERIOR 
COURT  OF    SAN    FRANCISCO. 


DECISION   A  VICTORY   FOR  RIGHT. 


"I  regard  it  as  the  greatest  legal  victory  over  un- 
just conditions  that  has  ever  occurred  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  a  declaration  that  an  employer  may  con- 
duct his  business  with  employes  who  will  earn  their 
wages.  The  decision  means  practically  that  employ- 
ers may  use  the  'open-shop'  policy  without  interfer- 
ence from  incompetent  men.  It  bars  boycotting  and 
cheap  carriers  of  signs  in  front  of  the  place  where 
a  man  is  conducting  a  business  that  is  honest  and  to 
the  interest  of  the  public.  Through  the  decision 
competent  men  who  refuse  to  pay  the  toll  exacted  by 
labor  unions  for  the  privilege  of  working  for  their 
living  are  given  the  protection  of  the  law.  Employers 
are  equally  protected  in  so  far  as  they  are  privileged  to 
hire  such  men  as  can  perform  their  duties.     I  do  not 

119 


believe  that  the  state  Supreme  Court  will  reverse 
Judge  Hunt's  decision. — T.  C.  Van  Ness,  counsel 
for  the  Stable  Owners'  Association. 

SOUNDNESS    OF  THE    DECISION    QUESTIONED. 

"I  do  not  question  the  abstract  principles  of  in- 
dividual liberty,  justice  and  equality  before  the  law 
to  which  he  refers  as  the  basis  of  his  conclusions  and 
judgment;  but  I  do  not  think  that  he  has  satisfac- 
torily disposed  of  the  act  of  the  Legislature  forbid- 
ding the  issuance  of  injunctions  in  such  cases.  If  the 
testimony  of  certain  witnesses  of  the  plaintiff  was  true 
it  showed  that  crimes  had  been  committed  by  indi- 
viduals which  should  be  punished  according  to  the 
provisions  of  the  penal  statutes,  and  an  injunction 
should  not  be  issued  to  restrain  the  commission  of 
crimes.  The  defendants  are  anxious  to  have  the  con- 
stitutionality of  that  statute  finally  and  conclusively 
determined,  and  I  believe  that  members  of  labor 
unions  generally  share  that  desire.  I  am  of  the  opinion 
that  the  matter  will  not  be  permitted  to  rest  on  the 
opinion  of  Judge  Hunt,  but  that  an  appeal  will  be 
taken  to  the  Supreme  Court." — J.  G.  Maguire,  counsel 
for  the  Stablemen's  Union. 

EFFECT     ON    INDUSTRIAL     CONDITIONS     FAR     REACHING. 

A  permanent  injunction  was  granted  by  Judge  John 
Hunt  restraining  the  Stablemen's  Union  from  further 
effort  to  make  effective,  by  means  of  threats,  intimi- 
dation and  the  use  of  "pickets,"  a  boycott  declared 
against  the  Nevada  Stables.  In  its  effect  upon  in- 
dustrial   conditions    no    more    sweeping   decision   has 

I20 


been  rendered  on  the  Pacific  coast.  The  judge's  opin- 
ion enters  exhaustively  into  the  right  of  organizations 
to  boycott,  and  points  to  the  long  line  of  authorities 
that  declare  the  boycott  illegal.  Continuing,  the  de- 
cision divests  the  union  of  its  one  remaining  defense 
— the  act  of  1903,  which  was  passed  at  the  demand  of 
the  labor  leaders,  and  which  prohibits  courts  of  equity 
from  interfering  by  injunction  to  restrain  combina- 
tions of  men  in  trade  disputes  from  committing  acts 
which,  if  done  by  one  person,  would  not  be  criminal. 
This  statute,  the  court  holds,  is  class  legislation  and 
unconstitutional.  This  decision,  if  upheld  by  the  Su- 
preme Court,  will  go  far  toward  preventing  scenes 
of  violence  during  strikes. — San  Francisco  Call,  Au- 
gust 7,  1904. 

ANTECEDENTS  OF   THE  CASE. 

Judge  John  Hunt  of  the  Superior  Court  handed 
down  a  decision  which,  in  its  effect  upon  industrial 
affairs,  is  the  most  important  ever  rendered  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  This  decision  was  reached  in  the  case 
of  E.  G.  Pierce,  proprietor  of  the  Nevada  Stables, 
supported  by  the  Citizens'  Alliance,  against  Stable- 
men's Union,  Local  No.  8760. 

This  suit  had  as  its  purpose  the  quieting  of  the 
striking  stablemen  that  harassed,  threatened  and  ter- 
rorized the  non-union  men  employed  by  the  stable 
owners  in  place  of  union  men  who  refused  to  work 
when  demands  made  by  them  were  rejected  as  unrea- 
sonable. In  the  prayer  of  his  complaint  Pierce  de- 
manded that  an  injunction  issue  perpetually  restrain- 
ing  the  defendant    union    from    interfering    with    his 

121 


business  in  any  way,  from  picketing  his  premises  and 
from  molesting  or  intimidating  his  workmen  and  pa- 
trons. His  prayer  has  been  granted  by  Judge  Hunt, 
and  in  language  that  is  plain  and  supported  by  higher 
authority  the  court  reaffirms  the  principle  that  the 
right  to  labor  is  natural  and  inalienable. 

Judge  Hunt's  opinion  will  serve  to  clarify  the  local 
atmosphere,  which  has  long  been  clouded  by  contro- 
versy between  employer  and  employe.  His  order  is 
the  most  sweeping  ever  issued  by  a  western  court 
against  the  common  practices  of  unionism.  In  view 
of  the  fact,  however,  that  the  constitutionality  of  a 
statute  upon  which  the  unions  based  their  right  to 
boycott  and  make  the  same  effective  is  ruled  against, 
the  case  will  not  rest  on  Judge  Hunt's  decision.  It 
will  be  carried  at  once  to  the  Supreme  Court  by  the 
defeated  organization.  This  fact  was  announced  in 
Judge  Hunt's  courtroom  yesterday  morning  by  C.  P. 
Munroe,  captain  of  the  stablemen's  pickets,  who  was 
present  to  hear  the  reading  of  the  decision. 

STABLEMEN    RESTRAINED. 

In  June  Judge  Hunt  issued  a  temporary  restraining 
order  against  the  stablemen  that  were  boycotting 
Pierce's  stable  and  committing  various  acts  tending 
to  injure  his  business.  When  the  hearing  came  up  on 
a  motion  to  dissolve  the  injunction  it  was  agreed  be- 
tween James  G.  Maguire,  attorney  for  the  union,  and 
T.  C.  Van  Ness,  attorney  for  the  stable  owner,  that 
the  case  should  be  tried  on  its  merits  and  should  be  a 
test  case  of  the  right  of  unions  to  boycott  and  commit 

122 


other  acts  against  a  business  without  fear  of  injunc- 
tion from  a  court  of  equity.  The  statute  upon  which 
the  union  rehed  follows : 

Section  i.  No  agreement,  combination  or  contract, 
by  or  between  two  or  more  persons  to  do  or  procure 
to  be  done,  or  not  to  do  or  to  procure  not  to  be  done, 
any  act  in  contemplation  or  furtherance  of  any  trade 
dispute  between  employers  and  employes  in  the  state 
of  California  shall  be  deemed  criminal,  nor  shall  those 
engaged  therein  be  indictable  or  otherwise  punishable, 
for  the  crime  of  conspiracy,  if  such  act  committed  by 
one  person  would  not  be  punishable  as  a  crime,  nor 
shall  such  agreement,  combination  or  contract  be  con- 
sidered as  in  restraint  of  trade  or  commerce,  nor  shall 
any  restraining  order  or  injunction  be  issued  with 
relation  thereto.  Nothing  in  this  act  shall  exempt 
from  punishment,  otherwise  than  is  herein  excepted, 
any  persons  guilty  of  conspiracy,  for  which  the  pun- 
ishment is  now  provided  by  any  act  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, but  such  acts  of  the  Legislature  shall,  as  to  the 
agreements,  combinations  and  contracts  hereinbefore 
referred  to,  be  construed  as  if  this  act  were  therein 
contained ;  provided,  that  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be 
construed  to  authorize  force  or  violence,  or  threats 
thereof. 

When  the  case  was  heard  evidence  was  submitted, 
largely  the  testimony  of  strikers  that  had  been  sum- 
moned, on  the  side  of  the  stable  owner.  The  union 
produced  no  witnesses.  The  arguments  were  made 
by  Maguire  and  Van  Ness  and  the  case  was  sub- 
mitted.    Judge  Hunt's  opinion  follows : 

123 


CASE   IS    EXPLAINED. 

On  the  twenty-second  day  of  April,  1904,  the  plain- 
tiff, Pierce,  was  the  owner  of  an  interest  in  the  Ne- 
vada Livery  Stables ;  on  that  date  he  employed  ten 
men,  all  of  whom,  save  one,  belonged  to  the  defend- 
ant, the  Stablemen's  Union,  which  union  was  com- 
posed of  some  600  members.  At  that  time  the  rela- 
tions between  the  plaintiff  and  his  men  were  har- 
monious ;  the  latter  were  working  upon  the  schedule, 
during  the  hours,  for  the  wages,  and  under  the  con- 
ditions prescribed   by  their  union. 

About  7  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  that  day  the 
plaintiff  was  visited  by  a  walking  delegate  of  the  de- 
fendant's union,  who  requested  him  to  discharge  the 
non-union  man  then  in  his  employ  and  substitute  a 
union  man  in  his  stead. 

The  plaintiff  declined  to  do  so;  whereupon  the 
walking  delegate  interviewed  all  of  the  union  em- 
ployes of  plaintiff  and  they  thereupon  ceased  work 
and  left  his  employment.  Shortly  thereafter  two 
pickets  from  the  union  arrived  and  commenced  to 
march  up  and  down  in  front  of  the  stable  entrance, 
one  of  them  carrying  a  banner  bearing  the  words, 
**Unfair  stables.  Union  men  locked  out  and  non- 
union men  put  in." 

The  following  day  three  or  four  pickets  appeared 
and  patroled  the  premises,  and  within  a  week  there- 
after the  number  of  pickets  gradually  increased,  until 
upon  some  occasions  there  were  as  many  as  fifty  men. 

Concurrently  with  the  strike  in  plaintiff's  stable  the 
union  employes  in  some  thirty-six  other  stables  in  this 

124 


city  went  out  and  were  thereupon  assigned  to  picket 
duty  at  those  stables.  Daily,  between  5  and  7  o'clock 
in  the  evening  and  when  patrons  of  plaintiff,  with 
their  horses  and  vehicles,  were  returning  to  the  stable, 
there  were  never  less  than  thirty  and  frequently  from 
forty  to  fifty  pickets,  bearing  one  or  more  of  the  ban- 
ners referred  to  and  marching  in  front  of  plaintiff's 
stable  in  an  elliptical  formation,  their  line  extending 
nearly  fifty  feet  and  completely  blocking  the  entrance 
thereof.  While  the  pickets  were  thus  marching  one 
or  more  of  them  was  continuously  shouting,  ''Unfair 
stable !" 

The  presence  of  so  large  a  body  of  men,  their 
marching,  their  banners  and  their  outcries,  served  to 
attract  the  attention  and  presence  of  a  large  concourse 
of  people,  so  that  travel  upon  the  street  in  front  of 
the  stable  was  congested  to  the  extent  that,  upon  oc- 
casions, police  interference  was  necessary  to  clear  both 
sidewalk  and  street. 

One  Munroe  was  appointed  by  the  union  captain  of 
the  pickets,  with  full  authority  to  order,  direct  and 
control  their  action.  He  testified  that  his  business  was 
to  see  that  the  men  acted  ''within  the  law,"  but  the 
union  left  it  to  him  to  determine  what  conduct,  upon 
their  part,  would  be  "within  the  law."  He  admitted 
that  he  was  the  agent  of  the  union  and  that,  as  such, 
he  considered  it  his  duty  to  "put  pressure  or  force" 
upon  plaintifif.  He  claimed  that  the  union  had  the 
right  to  take  "boycotting  measures"  against  the  plain- 
tiff and  that  he  acted  accordingly. 


125 


METHODS   OF  STRIKERS. 

The  law  defines  the  word  boycott  as  ''an  organized 
attempt  to  coerce  or  intimidate  one  into  compliance 
with  a  demand  by  combining  to  abstain  and  compel- 
ling others  to  abstain  from  any  business  or  social  rela- 
tions with  him."  Thus  defined,  the  evidence  herein 
abundantly  proves  that  Munroe  accomplished  his  pur- 
pose of  ''boycotting"  plaintiff. 

Daily,  for  nearly  two  months,  the  pickets  visited 
plaintiff's  premises,  bearing  the  banner  denouncing  his 
business  as  unfair  and  containing  the  false  statement 
that  he  had  "locked  out"  union  men  from  his  stable. 
Every  hour  of  the  day,  from  7  in  the  morning  until  7 
at  night,  the  pickets  were  shouting  that  the  stable  was 
unfair;  while  Munroe,  in  the  evening,  when  the  con- 
course of  people  walking  or  riding  home  in  the  cars 
on  Market  street  was  the  greatest,  loudly  called  their 
attention  to  the  stable  and  bade  them  "Look  at  this 
stable !  The  only  unfair  stable  on  Market  street ;  the 
stable  that  always  was  and  always  will  be  unfair." 

Upon  occasions  he  and  other  members  of  the  pickets 
called  the  plaintiff  and  his  employes  "scabs"  and  his 
stable  a  "scab  stable."  Occasionally  some  of  the 
pickets  uttered  threats  of  violence  against  plaintiff 
and  some  of  his  men.  The  non-union  employes  of 
plaintiff  were  finally  compelled  to  enter  and  leave  the 
stable  through  the  rear,  but  for  several  days  after  the 
strike  they  dared  not  leave  it  at  all,  but  were  boarded 
and  lodged  within  it.  Subsequently,  under  the  protec- 
tion of  a  police  officer,  they  were  escorted  to  and  from 

126 


a  restaurant,  but  even  then  they  were  occasionally 
followed  and  menaced  by  the  pickets. 

Upon  one  occasion  an  employe  of  plaintiff  was  at- 
tacked by  two  men  and  knocked  down ;  one  of  his 
employes  was  followed  to  his  home  and  struck  with  a 
rock,  and  another  was  approached  by  some  of  the 
pickets  and  urged  to  join  the  union;  upon  his  refusal 
to  do  so  he  was  informed  that  he  would  be  ''finished." 

One  of  the  health  ordinances  of  the  city  forbids 
stable-keepers  allowing  manure  to  accumulate  upon 
their  premises,  and  requires  its  removal  with  reason- 
able expedition.  When  the  plaintiff,  in  compliance 
with  that  law,  sought  to  secure  men  to  remove  the 
manure  from  his  stable,  they  were  dissuaded  from  do- 
ing so  by  the  pickets,  and  it  was  only  under  police 
protection  that  plaintiff,  after  several  days,  was  en- 
abled to  perform  a  duty  imposed  upon  him  by  law  and 
sanitary  considerations. 

A  dealer  in  hay  who  visited  plaintiff  during  the 
strike  to  obtain  orders  was  requested  by  some  of  the 
pickets  not  to  sell  to  the  plaintiff;  they  suggested  to 
him  that  if  plaintiff  could  not  procure  feed  his  horses 
would  starve,  and  when  the  dealer  refused  to  consider 
the  inhuman  proposition  he  was  threatened  that  if 
he  continued  to  deal  with  plaintiff  he  would  be  boy- 
cotted in  his  business. 

Horses  returning  to  plaintiff's  stable  were  at  times 
frightened  by  the  crowd  which  surrounded  it,  and 
one  patron  of  plaintiff,  on  that  account,  was  compelled 
to  enter  the  stable  from  the  rear.  Frequently  the 
shouts  of  the  pickets   were  boisterous,   their   manner 

127 


menacing  and  their  language  opprobrious  and  threat- 
ening. 

In  consequence  of  the  boycott  plaintiff  was  har- 
assed and  annoyed,  his  business  was  injured,  he  lost 
several  customers,  he  was  unable  to  hire  out  his  hacks 
and  road  vehicles  for  lack  of  drivers  and  was  com- 
pelled to   send  twelve  of  his  horses  to  pasture. 

BOYCOTT   IS   DEFINED. 

The  courts  generally  hold  that  the  ''boycott"  is 
illegal ;  it  has  been  thus  held  in  Virginia,  84  Va.  927 ; 
New  Jersey,  53  N.  J.  Eq.  loi ;  Kansas,  83  Fed.  Rep. 
912;  Michigan,  118  Mich.  497;  Massachusetts,  167 
Mass.  93 ;  Ilhnois,  loi  111.  App.  355,  and  in  Minne- 
sota, 45  Fed.  Rep.   135. 

This  action  was  brought  to  obtain  a  permanent  in- 
junction against  the  defendants,  the  Stablemen's 
Union  and  others,  to  restrain  them  fiom  continuing 
the  ''boycott."  Upon  filing  the  complaint  a  restrain- 
ing order  was  issued  enjoining  defendants  from  in- 
terfering with  plaintiff's  business,  from  picketing  his 
premises  and  from  molesting  or  intimidating  any  of 
his  workmen  or  patrons.  Upon  the  service  of  the 
restraining  order  the  "boycott"  ceased.  The  cause 
was  tried  and  submitted  and  the  facts  hereinbefore 
enumerated  were  proven  by  overwhelming  evidence. 
There  is  no  testimony,  however,  implicating  the  de- 
fendants, E.  Maza  and  John  Killian,  and  as  to  those 
defendants  the  action  is  dismissed. 

The  only  question  of  law  to  be  determined,  there- 
fore, is  the  question  of  remedy.  The  defendant's 
counsel    claims    that    the    plaintiff's    remedy,    if    any 

128 


must  be  sought,  either  in  a  criminal  proceeding  or  in 
a  civil  action  for  damages.  In  respect  to  the  former 
claim  it  is  to  be  noted  that  a  wrongful  act  is,  in  re- 
spect to  its  nature,  either  a  public  offense  or  a  private 
injury;  but,  in  respect  to  remedial  consequences,  it 
may  be  both.  The  state  may  punish  a  wrongdoer 
by  imprisonment,  but  that  circumstance  in  no  wise 
impairs  the  civil  remedy  of  the  aggrieved  party.  In 
ex  parte  Debs,  158  U.  S.,  591,  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  says :  "When  there  is  an  interference, 
actual  or  threatened,  with  property  rights  of  a  pecu- 
niary nature,  the  jurisdiction  of  equity  arises,  and  is 
not  destroyed  by  the  fact  that  such  acts  are  accom- 
panied by,  or  are  themselves,  violations  of  a  criminal 
law." 

In  this  case  the  answer  admits  that,  if  the  defend- 
ants are  not  restrained,  the  plaintiff's  business  will 
be  completely  destroyed.  For  such  a  wrong  the  penal 
code  affords  the  plaintiff  no  remedy.  The  criminal 
law  cannot  recompense  plaintiff  for  loss  sustained, 
cannot  restrain  others  from  committing  like  acts,  can- 
not enjoin  the  union  from  continuing  the  boycott,  nor 
can  it  prevent  a  threatened  injury  to  his  property. 

Would  a  civil  suit  for  damages  avail  the  plaintiff? 
In  this  case  the  answer  admits  that  the  defendants  are 
financially  irresponsible,  hence  a  money  judgment 
against  them  would  be  unavailing.  Furthermore  a 
resort  to  civil  proceedings  would  involve  a  multiplic- 
ity of  suits.  There  are  600  members  of  the  defend- 
ant's union,  several  hundred  of  whom  must  have  par- 
ticipated   in    the    "boycott"    of   plaintiff ;    the    number 

n  ^-9 


and  personnel  of  the  participants,  however,  was  con- 
stantly changing,  in  the  morning  one  or  two,  in  the 
afternoon  four  or  six  and  in  the  evening  from  thirty 
to  fifty;  the  names  of  the  picket  men  were,  and  are, 
unknown  to  plaintiff ;  besides,  some  participated  in  the 
proceedings  to  a  less  obnoxious  degree  than  others, 
some  were  present  oftener  than  others,  some  employed 
opprobrious  epithets  and  others  did  not.  But,  even 
if  the  participants  were  known,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  prove  the  amount  of  damage  which  the  act  of 
each  individual  occasioned;  or,  if  that  were  deter- 
mined, it  would  still  be  necessary  to  commence  sev- 
eral hundred  suits  and  engage  in  a  litigation  which, 
in  any  event,  would  be  barren  of  financial  results,  in 
consequence  of  the  impecuniosity  of  the  parties.  It 
must  be  apparent,  therefore,  that  an  action  for  dam- 
ages would  afford  plaintiff  no  remedy. 

REMEDY    OF    INJUNCTION. 

Now,  it  is  a  cardinal  rule  of  equity  jurisprudence 
that,  where  injury  to  property  is  threatened  by  the 
acts  of  parties  who  are  unable  to  respond  in  damages, 
or  where  the  redress  of  an  injury  will  occasion  a 
multiplicity  of  suits,  or  where  the  damage  resulting  is 
irreparable,  a  court  of  equity  will  furnish  the  injured 
party  the  only  remedy  that  can  avail  him,  to  wit,  the 
remedy  of  injunction. 

Hence  it  follows  that  the  pivotal  question  in  the 
case  is  this:  Is  the  plaintiff  entitled  to  an  injunction? 
Defendant's  counsel  claims  that  he  is  not  so  entitled ; 
that  even  if  the  defendants  cannot  respond  in  dam- 
ages,  even   if   the   injury   done,   or  threatened  to  be 

130 


done,  was,  or  is,  irreparable  in  its  nature,  even  if  a 
multiplicity  of  suits  would  be  occasioned,  and  even  if 
the  pecuniary  damage  sustained  by  plaintiff  would  be 
difficult  of  ascertainment,  still  a  court  of  equity  can- 
not enjoin  the  acts  complained  of  because  an  act  of 
the  Legislature  of  this  state  passed  March  20,  1903, 
forbids  it  from   doing   so.      (See    Statutes    1903,    p. 

289.) 

That  act,  in  some  of  its  features,  is  literally  taken 
from  the  English  statute  of  1872,  which  regulated 
criminal  conspiracies.  Both  the  English  statute  and 
the  above  act  provide  that  no  agreement,  contract  or 
combination,  by  two  or  more  persons,  to  do,  or  to 
procure  to  be  done,  an  act  in  contemplation  or  fur- 
therance of  a  trade  dispute  between  an  employer  and 
an  employe,  shall  be  criminal,  nor  shall  those  en- 
gaged therein  be  indictable  or  punishable  for  the 
crime  of  conspiracy,  if  such  act,  committed  by  one 
person,  would  not  be  punishable  as  a  crime.  Then 
follows  a  provision,  in  the  act  of  this  state,  not  con- 
tained in  the  English  statute,  to  the  effect  that  such 
combination  shall  not  be  considered  as  in  restraint 
of  trade ;  "nor  shall  any  restraining  order  or  injunc- 
tion be  issued  in  relation  thereto ;  provided  that  noth- 
ing in  this  act  shall  be  construed  to  authorize  force 
or  violence  or  threats  thereof." 

In  this  case,  the  proofs,  as  w^e  have  seen,  abund- 
antly show  threats,  force  and  violence ;  nevertheless, 
defendant's  counsel  contends  that  a  court  of  equity 
is  prohibited  from  issuing  injunctions  in  cases  of 
"trade  disputes"  between  employer  and  employe ;  and 


that  the  legislative  declaration  against  threats,  force 
or  violence  is  applicable  only  to  the  subject  of  con- 
spiracies ;  and  that  no  matter  what  force  or  intimida- 
tion "is  practiced  upon  the  employer,  by  the  employe, 
in  a  trade  dispute"  equity  is  powerless  to  relieve  by 
injunction. 

Plaintiff's  counsel  contends  that,  if  the  act  of  1903 
admits  of  such  a  construction,  it  is  unconstitutional. 

It  is  observed  that  the  act  in  question  is  in  the 
nature  of  criminal  legislation ;  it  relates  to  conspiracies 
as  crimes,  and  attempts  to  exempt  certain  conspiracies 
from  the  operation  of  a  penal  statute.  It  declares,  for 
instance,  that  an  act  which  is  not  a  crime,  when  com- 
mitted by  one,  is  not  criminal  when  committed  by 
many. 

Now  an  act  may  be  unlawful  without  being  a 
crime,  for  one  is  a  private  injury,  the  other  a  public 
offense. 

MANY  CANNOT  EXCUSE  WRONG. 

But  if  the  act  done  be  unlawful,  and  damage  is 
occasioned  thereby,  it  avails  nothing  under  the  com- 
mon law,  whether  the  wrongful  act  was  done  by  one 
or  by  many  in  combination ;  in  either  event,  the  law 
awards  redress  against  one  and  all  of  the  offenders. 
But,  in  my  opinion,  it  is  not  true,  at  least  in  a  civil 
sense,  that  what  one  may  do,  many  may  do.  The 
law  recognizes  the  potency  of  numbers ;  it  is  numbers 
which  is  an  inseparable  element  in  conspiracy,  com- 
binations or  unlawful  assemblies.  The  threat  which, 
if  uttered  by  one,  might  be  innocuous,  if  uttered  by 
many  may  well  serve  to  intimidate.     In  this  case  a 

132 


single  picket,  marching  in  front  of  plaintiff's  prem- 
ises, could  not  be  regarded  as  an  obstruction  to  the 
street,  nor  could  he  amount  to  an  ''unlawful  assem- 
bly;" but  when  a  band  of  fifty  pickets  marched  in  a 
circle,  and  obstructed  the  plaintiff  in  the  free  use  of 
his  property,  they  became  and  were  a  nuisance,  and 
were  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor. 

The  plaintiff  employed  but  ten  men  at  the  time  of 
the  strike,  and  yet  several  hundred  union  men  par- 
ticipated in  the  acts  complained  of.  It  cannot  be  as- 
sumed that  this  aggregation  were  seeking  to  obtain 
the  places  which  plaintiff's  union  men  voluntarily 
abandoned ;  on  the  contrary,  their  purpose  was  avow- 
edly to  enforce  the  authority  of  the  union,  and  to 
dictate  to  plaintiff  whom  he  should,  and  whom  he 
should  not,  employ.  That  the  plaintiff  was  injured 
in  his  property  rights  cannot  be  gainsaid;  that  the 
acts  of  defendants,  if  continued,  would  have  ulti- 
mately destroyed  his  business  is  admitted.  If  defend- 
ant's acts  were  unlawful,  the  law  presumes  that  their 
intent  was  unlawful;  and  the  act  of  1903  could  not 
and  does  not  sanction  a  combination  to  accomplish 
an  unlawful  act. 

But,  aside  from  these  considerations,  I  am  of  opin- 
ion that  the  act  in  question,  in  so  far  as  it  attempts  to 
deprive  courts  of  equity  of  the  power  to  issue  injunc- 
tions in  cases  of  ''trade  disputes,"  is  unconstitutional, 
for  the  following  reasons : 

First.  It  violates  that  provision  of  our  state  con- 
stitution which  declares  that  "all  men  have  certain 
inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  those  of  enjoying 

133 


and  defending  life  and  liberty,  acquiring,  possess- 
ing and  protecting  property."  This  provision  is  con- 
tained in  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  and  it  forever 
safeguards  the  rights  of  persons  and  the  rights  of 
property.  Freedom  is  of  the  spirit  and  essence  of 
the  constitution;  but  freedom  thus  guaranteed  to  the 
citizen  no  more  implies  a  license  in  one  man  or  in 
any  combination  of  men  to  harass  or  injure  another 
in  the  pursuit  of  his  lawful  business,  than  it  implies 
a  license  to  deprive  him  of  his  personal  liberty.  The 
constitution  alike  protects  natural  freedom  and  in- 
dustrial freedom. 

If  the  right  of  property  is  inalienable,  the  right  of 
labor  is  inviolate.  In  Billings  vs.  Hall,  7  Cal.  7,  the 
Supreme  Court  of  this  state,  commenting  upon  the 
constitutional  provision  in  question,  refers  to  it  as 
"one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  enlightened  gov- 
ernment, without  a  rigorous  observance  of  which 
there  could  be  neither  liberty  nor  safety  to  the  citi- 
zen. If  one  of  the  primary  objects  of  government 
is  to  enable  the  citizen  to  acquire,  possess  and  defend 
property,  how  can  it  be  impaired  by  legislation?" 
The  right  to  labor  is  a  right  of  property,  and  the 
duty  to  protect  it  is  the  highest  office  of  our  laws. 

LABOR    IS    MOST    SACRED. 

In  127  Cal.  13,  the  Supreme  Court  quotes  with  ap- 
proval the  following  extract  from  State  vs.  Goodwill, 
33  W.  Va.  179:  "The  property  which  every  man  has 
in  his  own  labor,  as  it  is  the  original  foundation  of 
all  other  property,  so  it  is  the  most  sacred  and  invio- 
late."    Hence  no  syndicate  of  employers  or  union  of 

134 


employes  can  bar  one  of  the  right  to  labor,  for  the 
right  to  labor  is  the  right  to  live ;  but  how  can  it  be 
said  that  a  right  is  inviolate  if,  when  violated,  the  law 
affords  no  redress?  For  the  law  to  declare  a  right, 
and  then  deny  it  all  means  of  enforcement,  would  be 
to 

"Keep  the  word  of  promise  to  our  ear, 

And  break  it  to  our  hope." 

But  such  a  reproach  does  not  rest  upon  the  law ; 
for  it  is  one  of  its  oldest  and  best  maxims  that, 
"Where  there  is  a  wrong,  there  is  a  remedy."  Hence 
when  a  property  right  is  violated,  and  the  common 
law  affords  the  injured  party  no  remedy,  equity  will 
intervene  to  redress  the  wrong.  To  deny  the  plaintiff 
equitable  relief  for  the  invasion  of  his  rights  of  prop- 
erty is  to  deny  him  due  process  of  law  and  to  violate 
a  fundamental  principle  of  the  constitution  of  the 
state;  for  a  right  without  a  remedy  is  no  right  at  all. 

Second.  The  provision  in  question  is  special  leg- 
islation, inasmuch  as  it  is  not  of  uniform  operation ; 
under  it  litigants  do  not  stand  equal  before  the  law. 
While  it  is  true  that  class  legislation  is,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  sometimes  proper,  yet  such  classification 
must  be  founded  upon  differences,  either  defined  in 
the  constitution  or  natural  in  themselves,  or  which 
suggest  a  reason  which  might  naturally  be  held  to 
justify  a  diversity  of  litigation. 

In  Johnson  vs.  Goodyear  Co.,  127  Cal.  7,  the  Legis- 
lature attempted  to  confer  upon  the  employes  of  a 
corporation  certain  legal  rights,  which  other  employes 

135 


did  not  possess ;  and  the  law,  upon  that  account,  was 
held  unconstitutional. 

The  provision  is  special  legislation,  because,  in  mat- 
ters of  "trade  disputes,"  it  denies  to  employers  an 
equitable  remedy  which  it  accords  to  the  non-employ- 
ing class ;  it  applies  to  "trade  disputes"  a  rule  not  ap- 
plicable to  other  disputes ;  one  class  of  property  and 
one  of  property  owners,  under  certain  conditions, 
may  obtain  equitable  relief,  which,  under  the  same 
conditions,  this  act  denies  to  another  class  of  property 
and  property  owners.  The  owner  of  real  estate  is 
entitled  to  an  injunction  against  a  trespasser  whose 
acts  threaten  his  possession;  but,  under  this  legisla- 
tion, the  man  who  owns  a  business,  under  like  con- 
ditions, is  denied  like  relief. 

The  provision  is  special  legislation  because  it  ap- 
plies only  to  a  particular  class  and  makes  employes 
the  immunes  of  the  law. 

The  constitution  of  the  state  provides  that  no  citi- 
zen, or  class  of  citizens,  shall  be  granted  privileges, 
or  immunities,  which,  upon  the  same  terms,  shall  not 
be  granted  to  all  citizens. 

If  the  acts  herein  complained  of  were  committed 
by  an  organization  of  men  between  whom  and  the 
plaintiff  the  relation  of  employment  never  existed,  the 
plaintiff's  right  to  equitable  relief  would  be  undoubted ; 
but,  under  this  provision,  if  one  or  more  of  his  em- 
ployes, in  combination  with  others,  commit  these 
acts,  the  equitable  remedy  does  not  exist.  In  my 
opinion  there  can  be  no  legal  support  for  such  leg- 

136 


islation,  undermining   and   destroying,   as   it   does,   a 
constitutional  right. 

PROVISION    IS    VOID. 

Third.  The  provision  in  question  is  void  because 
it  seeks  to  deprive  the  Superior  Court  of  a  judicial 
prerogative  conferred  upon  it  by  the  constitution. 
The  constitution  provides  that  "the  Superior  Court 
shall  have  jurisdiction  of  all  cases  in  equity."  If  the 
Legislature  can  deprive  a  court  of  equity  of  the 
right  to  issue  an  injunction  in  a  case  Hke  this,  then  it 
could  deprive  it  of  the  right  to  issue  an  injunction  in 
any  case;  it  could  absolutely  divest  the  court  of  what 
is  and  always  has  been  one  of  its  most  potent  rem- 
edies, thus  nullifying  its  powers  and  making  impo- 
tent its  decrees. 

Defendant's  counsel  upon  this  point  relies  upon  the 
Wright  case,  139  CaL,  474,  and  the  Spreckels  case,  117 
CaL,  377.  In  each  of  those  cases  one  court  sought  to 
enjoin  judicial  proceedings  in  another  court  and,  in 
each  instance,  it  was  held  that  the  court  was  power- 
less to  make  such  an  order.  In  the  Wright  case  the 
court  held  that  the  Legislature  may  restrain  the  ju- 
dicial power  to  enjoin,  ''when,  by  statutory  changes, 
some  right  ceases  to  exist  and  in  cases  of  equitable 
cognizance  which  no  longer  arise."  This  case  does 
not  fall  within  either  of  the  above  classes.  The  right 
of  property  granted  to  the  plaintiff  by  the  constitution 
is  not  a  right  which  has  ceased  to  exist ;  nor  have  the 
cases  in  which  an  injunction  is  necessary  in  order  to 
prevent  a  multiplicity  of  actions  ceased  to  be  cases 
of  equitable  cognizance. 

137 


It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  Legislature,  as  was 
held  in  these  cases,  may  alter,  or  regulate,  remedies 
and  procedure,  legal  or  equitable,  but  it  cannot  destroy 
a  substantive  remedy,  nor  can  it  defeat  the  enforce- 
ment of  a  constitutional  right  by  depriving  the  injured 
party  of  the  only  remedy  that  the  law  can  award  for 
its  violation.  This  case  is  manifestly  one  of  equitable 
cognizance,  for  the  reasons  already  stated;  and,  in 
24th  Cal.,  409,  the  Supreme  Court  declared  that  "in 
matters  of  equitable  cognizance  powers  granted  by 
the  constitution  cannot  be  taken  away  by  legal  enact- 
ment." 

For  each  and  all  of  the  reasons  hereinbefore  stated, 
I  am  of  the  opinion  that,  in  so  far  as  the  legislative 
act  in  question  attempts  to  deprive  a  court  of  equity 
of  the  power  to  issue  injunctions  in  cases  of  this 
character,  it  is  unconstitutional  and  void. 

The  defendants  herein  rely  entirely  upon  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  legislative  provision  in  question. 
As  I  cannot  sustain  their  contention  in  that  regard,  it 
follows  that,  in  consonance  with  the  views  herein  ex- 
pressed, a  decree  should  be  entered  in  favor  of 
plaintiff  as  prayed  for.  It  is  accordingly  adjudged  that 
plaintiff  is  entitled  to  a  final  decree  of  injunction 
against  the  remaining  defendants,  in  substantial  ac- 
cord with  the  restraining  order  previously  granted 
herein,  and  counsel  will  prepare  a  decree  accordingly. 


138 


ARBITRATION     VS.     THE     TRADE     AGREE- 

.    MENT. 


We  present  this  week  an  illuminating  article  by 
Prof.  John  R.  Commons,  which  may  be  taken  as 
fairly  indicating  the  drift  of  opinion  among  close 
students  of  the  labor  problem  away  from  the  more  or 
less  sentimental  faith  in  arbitration  as  a  cure-all,  and 
toward  the  practical  value  of  negotiation  directly  be- 
tween the  parties  concerned,  and  the  trade  agreement. 
Negotiation,  free  conference  in  advance  of  trouble,  is 
one  of  the  planks  in  Public  Policy's  labor  platform, 
and,  with  the  qualifications  Professor  Commons  names 
as  essential,  we  are  able  in  the  main  to  indorse  the 
kind  of  trade  agreement  for  which  he  stands.  He 
does  not  argue  the  merits  of  the  trade  agreement 
beyond  showing  upon  what  conditions  it  will  prove 
mutually  advantageous  to  employer  and  employes ;  the 
more  recent  character  that  has  been  given  it  by  the 
courts  of  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  as  of  the  nature  of 
monopoly,  and  hence  illegal  per  se,  is  not  touched 
upon. 

But  it  seems  to  us  that  the  conditions  back  of  the 
agreement,  whenever  entered  into,  are  really  of  more 
vital  public  concern  than  the  question  of  its  monopo- 
listic aspect,  for  the  simple  reason  that  any  exercise  by 
the  employer  of  his  right  to  select  such  help  and  upon 
such  terms  as  he  may  choose  might  on  quite  as  good 
logic  be  interpreted  as  creating  monopolistic  exclusion 
of  other  classes  of  applicants.  Dismissing  that  phase 
— the  trade  agreement  when  forced  upon  the  em- 
ployer, or  when   taken  advantage  of  as  a  means  of 

139 


"working"  him  under  the  assurance  of  guaranteed 
employment  for  the  time  being,  is  an  iniquity  and  an 
abomination.  Per  contra,  under  such  conditions  as 
Professor  Commons  suggests,  it  may  serve  as  a  most 
practical  and  useful  basis  of  established  peace  between 
employers  and  men,  rendering  the  conditions  of  in- 
dustry definite  for  definite  periods  of  time,  so  far  as 
the  labor  feature  is  concerned,  and  thereby  removing 
one  of  the  chief  elements  of  uncertainty  from  which 
manufacturers  suffer  in  the  accepting  of  contract 
orders  for  future  delivery.  This  increased  stability  of 
business  is  often  of  greater  importance  to  an  employer 
than  the  opportunity  to  make  little  savings  on  the 
wage  scale  from  time  to  time,  which  usually  involves 
incessant  dispute,  stoppages  and  costly  delays. 

The  trade  agreement  will  become  the  ideal  basis 
of  employment  relations  in  proportion  as  less  and  less 
emphasis  is  laid  upon  making  it  an  ironclad  closed- 
shop  contract,  but  instead  converting  it  into  a  bulwark 
against  unfair  discrimination  by  either  party,  leaving 
the  employer  free  to  select  help  on  the  test  of  superior 
competency,  and  the  union  free  to  keep  the  shops  or- 
ganized by  seeing  to  it  that  this  superior  competency" 
is  always  to  be  found  within  the  union  ranks. 


ARBITRATION,        CONCILIATION,        TRADE 
AGREEMENT. 


BY  JOHN   R.   COMMONS. 


(From  the  Independent,  New  York.) 
(All   students  of  social   problems  will  be  glad  to 

140 


know  that  funds  have  been  subscribed  to  the  amount  of 
at  least  $30,000  for  the  preparation  of  a  "History  of 
Industrial  Democracy  in  the  United  States."  Profes- 
sor Ely,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  will  have 
charge  of  the  work,  and  his  chief  collaborator  will  be 
John  R.  Commons,  who  has  contributed  some  of  the 
most  valuable  articles,  signed  and  unsigned,  on  indus- 
trial conditions  published  in  the  Independent,  and  who 
has  just  been  made  professor  of  political  economy  in 
the  University  of  Wisconsin  to  enable  him  to  take  part 
in  the  production  of  this  work.  Professor  Commons, 
until  he  accepted  this  call,  was  the  statistician  of  the 
National  Civic  Federation.  In  the  following  article  he 
seems  to  point  out  a  really  practicable  solution  of  the 
labor  problem,  if  there  be  a  solution.  In  our  opinion 
Professor  Commons  knows  more  that  is  true  about  the 
mutual  relations  of  capital  and  labor  than  any  man  in 
the  United  States. — Editor  the  Independent.) 

MEANING  OF  TERMS. 

In  this  article  the  word  arbitration  is  used  to  mean  a 
decision  by  an  umpire  or  board  of  disinterested  out- 
siders. 

By  conciliation  is  meant  the  good  offices  of  disinter- 
ested parties  in  bringing  together  the  representatives  of 
the  contestants  and  helping  them  to  reach  an  agree- 
ment without,  however,  making  a  decision. 

By  trade  agreement  is  meant  an  agreement  between 
the  representatives  of  the  interested  parties  to  govern 
future  work  and  wages. 

These  definitions  are  given  to  begin  with  because  it 
is  expected  to  show  that  arbitration,  in  the  proper  sense 

T41 


of  the  term,  is  a  makeshift  and  a  sign  of  weakness ; 
that  only  imperfectly  does  it  establish  justice  or  guar- 
antee peace ;  that  it  has  been  abandoned  or  limited 
wherever  the  parties  have  had  experience  with  it,  and 
that  the  true  solution  of  the  problem  of  organized  labor 
and  capital  is  the  trade  agreement. 

INTERPRETING   AGREEMENTS    BY    ARBITRATION. 

First,  the  distinction  should  be  drawn  between  mak- 
ing a  trade  agreement  and  interpreting  an  existing 
agreement.  A  trade  agreement  lays  down  rules  and 
regulations  for  the  guidance  of  all  individuals  who  ac- 
cept its  terms.  It  is  an  act  of  legislation  wherein  the 
different  parties  come  together  and  work  out  an  ad- 
justment of  their  more  or  less  conflicting  interests. 
Such  legislation  will  always  be  indefinite  on  some 
points  of  detail  and  will  not  cover  all  of  the  conflicting 
interests  that  may  arise.  When  such  a  case  occurs  it 
requires  interpretation,  but  this  interpretation  is  simply 
a  statement  of  what  it  is  believed  the  agreement  itself 
would  have  stated  had  the  case  been  brought  up  when 
the  agreement  was  made.  If  the  parties  themselves 
cannot  agree  on  this  interpretation,  they  call  in  an  ar- 
bitrator, and  the  arbitrator's  task  is  comparatively  a 
simple  one,  for  he  has  the  agreement  before  him  as  a 
guide.  In  discussing  the  proper  place  of  arbitration  I 
refer  less  to  this  strictly  judicial  field  than  to  its  use  in 
the  legislative  field  of  the  trade  agreement.  Yet,  even 
in  the  field  of  interpretation  it  has  been  found  that  the 
arbitrator  is  seldom  needed.  A  board  of  conference  or 
conciliation,  sometimes  inexactly  called  an  "arbitration 

142 


board/'  composed  of  representatives  of  both  sides,  can 
usually  agree  upon  an  interpretation,  and  it  is  no  un- 
usual thing  to  learn  of  an  agreement  system  like  that 
of  the  stove  founders,  the  bricklayers,  the  mine  workers 
and  others,  in  which,  in  the  course  of  five,  ten  or 
twenty  years,  the  conferees  have  never,  or  at  most  ouly 
once  or  twice,  called  in  an  umpire.  Setting  aside,  then, 
the  minor  question  of  the  interpretation  of  an  existing 
agreement,  we  come  to  the  main  question  of  the  trade 
agreement. 

AGREEMENTS    MORE    EASILY    ENFORCED    THAN    AWARDS. 

Consider,  first,  the  probability  that  a  trade  agreement 
will  be  faithfully  enforced  compared  with  the  proba- 
bility that  an  arbitration  award  will  be  enforced.  A 
trade  agreement  is  a  contract  between  two  associa- 
tions drawn  up  by  their  representatives.  An  arbitra- 
tion award  is  also  a  contract,  but  it  is  drawn  up  by  an 
outsider  irresponsible  for  its  enforcement.  Now, 
fidelity  to  contracts  is  the  first  essential  to  a  renewal 
and  continuance  of  contracts.  But  in  our  American 
jurisprudence  there  is  no  authority  that  compels  the 
parties  to  observe  either  a  trade  agreement  or  an  ar- 
bitration award.  It  is  not  a  contract  law — it  is  only 
an  understanding.  Its  observance  depends  solely  upon 
the  self-interest  and  the  honor  of  the  parties.  Which 
of  the  two  kinds  of  contract  will  appeal  more  strongly 
to  this  self-interest  and  this  honor  ? 

A  trade  agreement  is  a  contract  accepted  and  signed 
by  the  representatives  after  all  its  terms  have  been  fully 
discussed  and  understood.     But  an  arbitration  award 

143 


is  a  contract  accepted  and  signed  in  the  dark  before 
either  party  knows  what  he  is  binding  himself  to  do. 
It  stands  to  reason  that  every  representative  who  has 
had  a  voice  in  making  the  agreement,  and  then  accepts 
it  with  his  eyes  open,  will  feel  more  keenly  his  personal 
obligation  in  having  that  agreement  faithfully  obeyed, 
than  he  will  when  he  can  disclaim  personal  responsi- 
bility for  any  unsavory  terms  of  the  agreement.  The 
representatives  who  sign  the  agreement  are  the  most 
influential  and  respected  of  the  members  of  the  two 
associations.  They  nearly  always  include,  moreover, 
the  executive  officers  of  those  associations  whose  duty 
it  is  to  enfoce  the  contract  on  any  recalcitrant  mem- 
bers. These  officers  are  certain  to  be  more  independent 
in  forcing  obedience  when  they  know  that  they 
have  the  backing  of  the  strongest  representatives  of  the 
rank  and  file. 

ADVANTAGE   OF   NUMBERS   IN    TRADE   AGREEMENTS. 

For  this  reason  a  trade  agreement  should  always  be 
made  by  as  large  a  body  of  representatives  as  can  pos- 
sibly be  admitted  to  the  conference.  The  Interstate 
Conference  of  the  bituminous  coal  industry  seems  an 
expensive  affair,  with  its  500  mine  workers  and  100 
operators,  and  the  detailed  work  is  actually  done  by  a 
small  committee.  But  every  one  of  these  delegates 
realizes,  as  he  could  in  no  other  way,  the  impossibility 
of  getting  a  settlement  that  will  suit  everybody,  and 
he  goes  back  to  his  local  a  missionary  to  explain  the 
agreement  and  to  show  why  it  is  the  best  that  could 
be  obtained.    The  expense  of  these  delegates  is  but  a 

144 


small  price  to  pay  for  the  enormous  educational  results 
of  this  contact  with  the  operators  and  their  influence 
with  the  locals.  For  the  observance  of  an  agreement 
neither  the  leaders  of  the  men  nor  the  leaders  of  the 
employers  can  be  most  successful  unless  they  have 
their  constituents  educated  up  to  the  conditions  of  the 
industry  and  the  strength  of  the  opposition.  If  these 
negotiations  were  conducted  by  only  a  small  number 
of  the  executive  officers  the  opportunity  would  be 
open  for  charges  of  undue  pressure,  secret  understand- 
ings or  ignorance  of  local  conditions,  and  the  result 
would  be  dissatisfaction  and  difficulty  in  enforcing  the 
agreement.  But  with  a  large  and  representative  com- 
mittee on  each  side,  the  prospects  of  effective  enforce- 
ment are  greatly  improved.  The  trade  agreement, 
therefore,  when  the  proper  machinery  is  adopted  for 
drawing  it  up,  much  more  than  an  arbitrator's  award, 
is  likely  to  be  observed  faithfully  and  renewed  peace- 
fully. 

THE   APPEAL   TO    FAIRNESS. 

This  is  emphasized  by  the  difference  in  attitude  of 
the  two  parties  when  they  appear  before  an  arbitrator 
and  when  they  meet  to  make  an  agreement.  It  is  all 
the  difference  between  arguing  a  suit  in  court  and 
settling  it  out  of  court.  In  the  court  proceedings  each 
side  takes  advantage  of  every  point,  makes  no  con- 
cessions and  becomes  generally  belligerent  and  un- 
conciliatory.  By  meeting  out  of  the  court  any  liber- 
ality or  concession  on  one  side  is  likely  to  induce 
similar  liberality  on  the  other  side.  Appeals  are  made 
to  the  spirit  of  equity  and  fairness,  and  it  is  only  as 

10  145 


this  spirit  of  equity  is  cultivated  that  a  permanent 
sokition  can  be  found.  A  decision  reached  in  any 
other  way  leaves  a  bad  taste  and  rankles  in  the  breast, 
and  must  be  decided  over  and  over  again  on  the 
occasion  of  any  petty  dispute,  with  always  the  immi- 
nent danger  of  outbreak  and  defiance. 

A    CASE    IN    POINT. 

When  the  stove  founders  and  the  molders  adopted 
their  agreement  system  they  debated  long  and  earn- 
estly on  this  subject,  and  finally  decided  to  have  no 
arbitration  even  on  questions  of  interpretation.  Mr. 
Castle,  one  of  the  participants,  in  speaking  of  this 
debate,  relates  that  ''the  question  was  asked  of  one 
who  was  most  strenuous  for  arbitration,  'Would  you, 
if  a  member  of  an  arbitration  committee,  representing 
your  side,  concede  anything  of  importance,  even  if 
you  became  convinced  it  was  right  to  do  so?'  and  his 
reply  was  'No;  I  should  feel  obliged  to  win,  if  possi- 
ble, through  the  odd  man/  " 

DIFFICULTIES  OF  ARBITRATION. 

The  word  "arbitration"  makes  a  sentimental  appeal, 
because  it  seems  to  call  for  justice  between  man  and 
man.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether  an  arbitrator  can 
possibly  satisfy  even  himself  as  to  what  is  justice  in  a 
given  dispute.  The  conditions  are  too  complicated 
and  he  has  no  rules  for  his  guidance.  See  what  the 
arbitrator  must  take  into  account:  He  cannot,  of 
course,  determine  what  share  labor  produces  and  what 
share  capital  produces  of  the  joint  product,  for  he 
gets   no  help,  for  example,   from   the   socialist,   who 

146 


holds  that  labor  produces  the  whole  product,  nor 
from  the  economist,  who  holds  that  each  produces 
what  he  actually  gets.  Abandoning  this  search,  sup- 
pose he  tries  to  discover  what  are  fair  profits  and  fair 
wages?  Here  he  meets  two  kinds  of  problems,  one 
that  of  wages  and  hours,  and  the  other  that  of  rules 
and  regulations.  Wages  and  hours  are  by  far  the 
simpler  of  the  two,  yet  consider  what  a  just  decision 
involves.  The  arbitrator  must  first  decide  whether 
the  industry  can  afford  to  pay  the  increase.  To  do 
this  he  must  decide  what  is  a  fair  rate  of  profit. 
Shall  it  be  5  per  cent  or  10  per  cent  or  15  per  cent? 
This  is  a  matter  upon  which  no  two  persons  will 
agree  if  their  interests  clash.  But  even  after  this  is 
decided,  he  must  decide  whether  that  rate  of  profit 
shall  be  earned  on  the  par  value  or  on  the  market 
value  of  the  stock  and  bonds,  or  on  the  actual  invest- 
ment, or  on  the  cost  of  reproduction,  and  whether 
good-will  shall  be  entitled  to  profits  as  well  as  tangi- 
ble capital.  If  he  decides  in  favor  of  the  actual  in- 
vestment or  cost  of  reproduction,  he  must  have  the 
help  of  an  accountant  and  an  engineer,  or  a  purchas- 
ing agent,  to  discover  what  has  been  the  actual  in- 
vestment, or  would  be  the  cost  of  reproduction.  After 
determining  all  these  essential  points  he  finds  that 
his  work  is  useless  because  the  profits  of  different 
employers  are  not  the  same,  and  some  of  them  are 
already  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy,  so  that  if  their 
expenses  are  increased  they  must  get  out  of  business. 
Finally,  the  arbitrator  cannot  take  into  account  the 
possibility   of   the   employer   being   able   to   shift   the 

M7 


increase  over  to  the  public  through  raising  the  prices 
of  his  products,  because  he  does  not  know  the  condi- 
tion of  the  business.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  the 
Anthracite  Coal  Commission  refused  to  listen  to  testi- 
mony respecting  the  ability  of  the  companies  to  pay 
the  increase  of  wages  demanded.  Such  would  have 
been  a  hopeless  and  endless  task,  and  even  if  they 
could  have  satisfied  themselves,  which  is  impossible 
they  could  not  have  satisfied  either  the  operators  or  the 
workers.  They  limited  their  inquiries  to  determining 
what  would  be  a  fair  wage  and  fair  hours  of  work, 
leaving  to  the  companies  the  problem  of  meeting  the 
increase  granted  as  best  they  could. 

EVIL  OF   SPLITTING  THE  DIFFERENCE. 

But  fair  wages  and  fair  hours  of  work  involve  an- 
other investigation,  almost  as  hopeless  as  that  of  fair 
profits.  Whether  the  cost  of  living  has  decreased  or 
increased  and  how  much;  whether  the  wages  and 
hours  of  similar  labor  in  other  fields  should  be  taken 
as  a  standard ;  whether  hardships  and  dangers  reduce 
the  trade  life  of  the  workman ;  whether  employment  is 
steady  or  interrupted;  whether  luxuries,  comforts, 
leisure  and  the  fruits  of  civilization  are  included  in  the 
standard  of  living — it  only  needs  a  statement  of  these 
vital  questions  to  show  how  impossible  is  their  answer 
from  the  standpoint  of  justice.  The  arbitrator  looks 
about  for  something  more  definite.  He  finds  nothing 
but  the  demands  and  the  counter-demands.  The 
workmen  ask  an  increase  of  20  per  cent  In  wages  and 
eight  hours.  The  employers  ask  existing  wages  and 
ten  hours.    Here  is  something  definite,  and  since  both 

148 


cannot  be  right,  and  each  appears  to  be  right,  the 
arbitrator  can  usually  do  nothing  but  split  the  differ- 
ence. So  frequently  and  unsatisfactory  has  been  this 
experience  with  arbitrators  that  they  are  avoided 
wherever  possible,  and  the  English  agreements  gen- 
erally require  the  arbitrator  to  decide  ''yes"  or  "no," 
as  in  a  court  of  law,  without  trying  to  satisfy  both 
parties. 

ARBITRATORS    SELDOM    UNDERSTAND    SITUATION. 

So  much  for  wages  and  hours.     When  it  comes  to 
the  rules  and  regulations  the  task  of  the  arbitrator  is 
even  more  difficult,  and  his  decision  sometimes  actu- 
ally brings  confusion.     In  order  that  he  may  be  disin- 
terested it  is  usually  necessary  to  select  an  outsider 
who  is  not  acquainted  with  the  business.    Union  rules 
designed  to  meet  specific  evils  have,  therefore,  little 
significance   to   him,  or   he   does   not   understand   the 
way  in  which  they  work.     No  one  can  appreciate  the 
reasons  for  these  rules  who  lacks  the  technical  knowl- 
edge.     A   technical  man    is    really    required,    but   he 
could  not  be  disinterested.    The  history  of  the  agree- 
ment between  the  International  Typographical  Union 
and  the  American  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association 
shows  clearly  this  defect,  and  the  recent  revision  of 
that  agreement  is  an  acknowledgement  of  the  failure 
of  arbitration  in  so  far  as  rules  and  regulations  are 
concerned.     The  revision  consists  in  taking  these  sub- 
jects  out   of   arbitration   and   leaving   them  solely   to 
negotiation,   first,   between   the   local   unions   and   the 
local  publishers,  then,  on  appeal,  between  the  Interna- 
tional Union  and  the  commissioner  and  general  com- 

149 


mittee  of  the  publishers.  There  are  left  to  the  arbi- 
trator only  the  questions  of  wages  and  hours,  and  of 
such  local  rules  as  directly  affect  hours  and  wages. 
This  experience  in  the  newspaper  business  bears  out 
the  experience  in  all  trades  where  arbitration  has  been 
tried. 

UNION   VERSUS   OPEN   SHOP. 

Besides  rules  and  regulations  there  are  certain  ques- 
tions of  policy  and  expediency,  which  are  not  subject 
to  arbitration  and  must  be  settled  by  negotiation. 
Among  these  the  largest  is  the  union  vs.  the  open 
shop.  When  this  subject  was  submitted  by  the  Typo- 
graphical Union  and  the  Typothetse  to  Mr.  Seth  Low 
some  years  ago,  he  refused  to  pass  upon  it.  He  said, 
in  explanation,  that  "this  is  a  question  ordinarily  de- 
cided by  power.  If  the  union  is  strong  enough  to 
carry  its  point  an  office  is  made  a  card  office.  If  the 
employer  is  strong  enough  to  maintain  his  position,  he 
declines  to  have  his  office  made  a  card  office.  No 
arbitrator,"  he  said,  ''could  find  that  an  employer 
should  be  constrained  against  his  will  to  shut  his 
office  either  to  union  men  or  to  non-union  men."  If 
that  question  is  not  to  be  decided  by  arbitration,  then, 
of  course,  one  of  the  important  causes  of  strikes  and 
lockouts  must  be  handled  solely  through  the  trade 
agreement.  And,  indeed,  this  is  the  only  proper  solu- 
tion, for  the  question  is  one  of  expediency  and  mutual 
advantage,  to  be  determined  by  experience  and  good 
judgment.  Whether  the  union  can  and  will  provide 
greater  security  and  other  advantages  to  the  employer 
through  the  closed  shop  than  through  the  open  shop 

150 


is  a  question  solely  for  the  employer  to  decide  under 
the  circumstances.  It  involves  questions  too  large  for 
arbitration,  such  as  the  character  of  the  union  and  its 
leaders,  its  record  as  a  business  organization,  its  ob- 
servance of  agreements,  its  policy  on  sympathetic 
strikes,  its  control  of  the  supply  of  competent  mechan- 
ics, its  terms  of  admission  and  apprenticeship,  and  its 
modes  of  discipline.  In  these  respects  unions  differ 
widely,  and  the  same  union  is  continually  changing, 
so  that  there  is  no  constant  standard  to  guide  the 
arbitrator.  The  question  is  wholly  one  of  the  balance 
of  advantage,  and  if  it  cannot  be  settled  by  negotia- 
tion and  conciliation,  it  cannot  be  settled  at  all. 

It  is  plain  from  the  foregoing  observations  that  ar- 
bitration, in  the  correct  sense  of  the  term — i.  e.,  an 
award  by  an  umpire  or  disinterested  board  of  outsid- 
ers— is  a  makeshift  in  that  it  does  not  enlist  the  hearty 
support  of  both  sides  in  its  enforcement,  while  it 
tends  to  confuse  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the 
trade,  fails  to  establish  justice  in  the  matter  of  wages, 
and  cannot  even  be  invoked  in  matters  of  policy  and 
expediency. 

DRIFT   AGAINST    ARBITRATION    IN    ENGLAND. 

We  can  learn  a  lesson  on  this  subject  from  the  ex- 
perience in  England,  where  the  unions  are  older,  and 
there  is  no  more  convincing  account  of  the  dissatis- 
faction occasioned  by  arbitration  than  that  to  be 
found  in  the  chapter  on  that  subject  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Webb  in  their  book  on  "Industrial  Democracy."  From 
the  year  1850  to  1876  trade  unionists  persistently 
strove   for  arbitration,  but  since  that  time,  although 


arbitration  has  risen  in  popularity  with  the  pubHc,  the 
two  combatants  have  seldom  shown  any  alacrity  in 
seeking  it,  and  they  "can  rarely  be  persuaded  to 
agree  to  refer  their  quarrel  to  any  outside  authority" 
(p.  224). 

WHERE     ARBITRATION     MAY     SUCCEED. 

It  is  not  maintained  that  arbitration  can  be  wholly 
and  everywhere  displaced  by  the  trade  agreement  and 
the  conference  board.  It  is,  perhaps,  well  enough  to 
provide  for  an  umpire  in  matters  of  interpretation  in 
order  that  a  deadlock  may  not  continue  too  long.  And 
if  it  is  considered  desirable  to  bind  the  parties  to  an 
arbitration  system  for  a  period  as  long  as  five  years, 
as  is  done  in  the  newspaper  business,  it  seems  also 
necessary  to  provide  for  an  arbitrator  on  questions  of 
wages  and  hours.  But  if  we  reduce  the  matter  into  its 
simplest  terms  we  shall  probably  find  that  the  occasions 
when  it  is  necessary  to  fall  back  on  an  arbitration 
proper  are  the  following: 

1.  When  a  representative  of  either  side  does  not 
want  to  face  his  constituency  in  making  a  concession. 

2.  When  a  new  union  or  a  new  employers'  associa- 
tion, inflated  by  a  novel  feeling  of  strength,  finds  itself 
unexpectedly  against  a  hard  reality,  and  looks  about 
for  a  way  out. 

3.  When  the  parties  have  agreed  between  them- 
selves on  all  points,  except  one  or  two,  and  these  have 
been  reduced  to  such  simple  and  untechnical  terms 
that  any  person  of  integrity  and  intelligence  can  give 
a  decision. 

4.  When  the  public  is  so  seriously  damaged  that  it 

152 


practically  forces  the  contestants  to  submit  to  outside 
interference. 

In  mentioning  these  cases  and  contingencies,  which 
seem  to  call  for  arbitration,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  re- 
sort to  the  arbitrator  is  a  sign  that  the  parties  are  not 
well  organized,  and  therefore  are  inexperienced,  or  that 
the  representatives  are  afraid  of  their  constituents,  or 
that  the  industry  is  a  public  utility.  It  may  well  be 
argued  that  in  the  case  of  a  public  utility  arbitration 
is  necessary;  but,  if  that  is  so,  it  is  because  the  rights 
of  the  public  become  paramount  and  the  parties  must 
subordinate  their  business  to  public  control.  If  this  is 
conceded  there  is  no  half-way  measure  short  of  making 
arbitration  compulsory  or  legal,  not,  however,  as  a 
means  of  securing  justice  between  the  parties,  but  as 
a  means  of  securing  peace.  In  other  cases  the  public 
can  wait  until  the  time  when,  through  the  better  ac- 
quaintanceship and  confidence  promoted  by  the  trade 
agreement,  the  arbitrator  will  gradually  fade  into  the 
background. 


GOVERNOR  PEABODY'S  RECITAL  OF  COLO- 
RADO'S WOES. 


The  abstracts  which  have  appeared  in  the  daily  press 
of  Governor  Peabody's  statement  to  the  people  of 
Colorado  give  an  unsatisfactory  impression  of  the 
strength  of  his  presentation  of  the  labor  situation ;  the 
address  in  full  is  an  important  contribution  to  the  his- 
tory of  Colorado's  miseries  during  the  last  few  years 
and  is  well  worth  the  space  we  give  it  in  this  issue  of 

153 


Public  Policy.  It  has  been  a  matter  of  extraordinary 
difficulty  to  get  an  absolutely  trustworthy  and  un- 
prejudiced picture  of  the  conditions  that  have  pre- 
vailed, especially  during  the  period  of  martial  law,  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Governor  Peabody 
has  fully  and  finally  satisfied  the  demand  in  his  latest 
defense.  In  the  nature  of  the  case  he  makes  a  special 
justification  of  his  own  course,  but  it  is  not  necessary 
to  share  every  opinion  expressed  by  the  governor  to 
recognize  the  force  of  his  recital  of  certain  facts  promi- 
nent in  the  development  of  the  conflict  between  law 
and  anarchy. 

Indeed,  the  strongest  part  of  the  governor's  state- 
ment is  precisely  that  upon  which  the  largest  amount 
of  corroborative  testimony  exists,  namely,  the  record 
of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners  wherever  that 
organization  has  obtained  a  controlling  grip  in  Colo- 
rado and  neighboring  states.  "This  record,"  he  says, 
"convinced  me  that  the  overt  acts  which  have  been 
committed  in  Cripple  Creek  were  but  forerunners  of 
others,  and  that  with  the  executive  officers  of  Teller 
county  in  direct  collusion  with  this  organization  it 
would  be  but  a  few  days  until  a  reign  of  terror,  involv- 
ing loss  of  life  and  property,  would  be  established  in 
that  district.  The  federation  is  led  and  absolutely  con- 
trolled by  unscrupulous  men.  Only  two  of  the  execu- 
tive committee  are  residents  of  the  state,  and  none  of 
the  committee  has  anything  in  common  with  the  state's 
interests.  The  character  and  history  of  this  federation 
must  be  held  constantly  in  view  in  determining  whether 
or  not  the  policy  I  have  pursued  is  wise  and  proper. 

154 


There   is  no   other  orgfanization   with   such   character 
and  such  a  history  in  the  United  States." 


GOVERNOR  PEABODY'S  DEFENSE. 


AN    EXPLANATION    OF    HIS    COURSE    IN    DEALING    WITH 
COLORADO  LABOR  TROUBLES. 


To  the  People  of  Colorado :  There  is  a  prevalent 
idea  in  this  country  that  the  properties  which  pertain 
to  the  higher  executive  offices  should  deter  their  in- 
cumbents from  engaging  in  any  controversial  dis- 
cussions of  their  policy  or  action,  limiting  the  execu- 
tive functions  in  that  regard  to  the  messages  that  from 
time  to  time  are  made  to  the  Legislature. 

I  would  not  at  this  time  depart  from  the  observance 
of  the  rule  of  silence  I  have  hitherto  follovv^ed  did  I  not 
believe  that  recent  events  render  such  departure  a  duty 
to  my  state.  The  unhappy  conditions  which  have  ex- 
isted and  to  a  degree  still  exist  in  three  out  of  fifty- 
nine  counties  of  the  state  have  been  made  the  pretext 
for  the  most  wanton  and  false  representations  of  the 
conditions  in  the  state  at  large. 

Certain  newspapers  of  the  state  of  wide  circulation 
and  influence,  which  have  never  been  distinguished 
either  for  support  of  conservative  policies  or  for  con- 
demning the  excesses  of  the  one  organization  which 
has  caused  our  trouble,  have  given  these  misrepresenta- 
tions the  widest  publicity. 

Many  of  the  people  of  our  sister  states,  with  faint 
notions  of  the  truth,  have  been  led     to     believe     that 

^55 


Colorado  is  in  a  state  of  anarchy,  ruled  by  abandoned 
public  officials,  who  have  rendered  life  and  liberty  un- 
safe. 

This  picture  has  been  drawn  by  certain  citizens  of 
our  own  state,  who,  for  selfish  purposes,  which  are 
apparent,  seek  to  tarnish  the  fair  name  of  a  great  and 
prosperous  commonwealth. 

If  the  public  press  is  to  be  credited  the  delegation 
from  this  state  to  the  recent  St.  Louis  convention 
pictured  before  the  representatives  of  every  state  in  the 
Union  the  woe  and  desolation  and  degradation,  the 
lawlessness  and  hopelessness  of  their  own  state. 

Colorado  deserves  a  better  fate  at  the  hands  of  her 
sons. 

A   FRIEND  OF   LABOR. 

And  again  it  has  become  the  settled  policy  of  those 
who  hope  to  gain  political  advantage  through  the  mis- 
fortunes of  the  people  of  a  few  localities  to  inaugurate 
by  daily  pronouncements  a  campaign  of  hatred,  and  to 
lead  that  large  law-abiding  and  liberty-loving  body  of 
our  citizens  who  belong  to  labor  unions  to  believe  that 
I  have  been,  and  still  am,  engaged  in  waging  a  war 
against  all  union  labor.  Nothing  could  be  further 
from  my  policy  or  my  desire. 

The  considerations  above  stated  and  many  others 
led  me  to  believe  that  it  is  fitting  and  proper  for  me 
to  present  to  the  people  of  this  state  and  to  the  public 
generally  a  review,  as  brief  as  is  consistent  with  a 
proper  understanding,  of  the  causes  that  led  up  to  the 
labor  troubles  with  which  I  have  had  to  deal,  and  of 
the  reasons  for  the  policy  which  has  been  pursued. 

156 


Very  soon  after  I  assumed  office  on  February  14, 
1903,  a  strike  was  declared  at  the  ore  reduction  mills 
at  Colorado  City,  in  El  Paso  county,  by  the  Colorado 
City  Mill  and  Smelter  Men's  Union,  a  branch  of  the 
Western  Federation  of  Miners.  On  the  night  of 
February  14  a  large  number  of  strikers  proceeded  to 
one  of  the  mills,  and  by  show  of  force  and  threats 
drove  the  workmen  who  had  refused  to  strike  from 
their  labor.  The  strikers  established  pickets.  Em- 
ployes of  the  mills  were  assaulted  and  conditions  grad- 
ually grew  worse,  until,  on  March  3  following,  the 
sheriff  of  the  county  petitioned  me  to  send  the  militia, 
stating  that  he  was  unable  to  preserve  the  peace  and 
protect  life  and  property.  A  petition  to  the  same 
effect  was  also  presented  at  or  about  the  same  time, 
signed  by  a  very  large  number  of  the  most  conserva- 
tive, well-known  and  highly  respected  residents  of 
El  Paso  county,  urging  that  I  send  the  militia  without 
delay. 

WORK  OF  COMMISSION. 

This  representation  of  conditions  and  knowledge 
gained  from  other  sources  impelled  me  to  order  out  a 
detachment  of  the  national  guard  for  service  at  and 
about  the  mills.  The  strike  continued,  but  the  militia 
preserved  order.  The  mills  continued  to  operate.  The 
statements  made  by  the  opposing  sides  were  greatly  at 
variance,  and  in  order  to  ascertain  the  truth  and  allay 
public  excitement,  on  the  19th  day  of  March,  1903,  I 
requested  five  gentlemen  of  acknowledged  standing  in 
the    state — Prof.    W.    F.   Slocum,    Judge    Charles  D. 

157 


Hayt,  Rev.  Thomas  Uzzell,  Father  J.  P.  Carrigan  and 
Hon.  Frank  W.  Frewen,  a  member  of  the  Legislature 
of  the  state  and  also  at  that  time  a  member  of  the 
Western  Federation  of  Miners — to  act  as  a  commis- 
sion to  investigate  and  report  to  me  the  causes  of  the 
trouble  and  to  seek,  if  possible,  a  friendly  settlement. 
This  body  was  known  as  the  governor's  commis- 
sion. Dr.  Slocum  was  unable  to  serve,  but  the  remain- 
ing members  acted  and  both  sides  voluntarily  ap- 
peared before  them  and  produced  a  mass  of  evidence. 
As  a  result  of  this  commission's  labors,  on  March  31, 
1903,  the  officials  of  the  mill  appeared  before  the  com- 
mission and  made  certain  promises  as  to  what  their 
course  would  be  if  the  strike  was  declared  off.  The 
president  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners,  who 
was  present,  expressed  doubt  as  to  the  good  faith  of 
the  promises  made,  but  stated  that  he  would  call  off 
the  strike  and  would  ask  the  commission  to  reassemble 
on  May  18  following  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
whether  or  not  the  representatives  of  the  milling  com- 
pany had  kept  the  promises  made. 

The  strike  was  declared  off.  On  May  18  the  feder- 
ation insisted  that  the  promises  made,  as  I  have 
stated,  had  not  been  kept. 

The  commission  reassembled.  The  statements  of  the 
federation  and  of  the  mill  management  were  pre- 
sented. The  commission  unanimously  reported  to  me 
that  the  promises  had  all  been  fulfilled,  closing  as  fol- 
lows : 

"Your  advisory  board  is  of  the  opinion  that  Mana- 
ger McNeil  has  used  all  possible  efforts  to  re-employ 

158 


the  striking  niillmen  in  accordance  with  his  assurances 
made  before  said  board." 

BEGINNING  OF   GREAT   STRIKE. 

Notwithstanding  this  report  a  strike  was  again  de- 
clared against  the  mills.  It  was  ineffectual,  and  there- 
upon a  sympathetic  strike  was  declared  by  the  federa- 
tion in  Cripple  Creek  to  cut  off  the  ore  supply  of  the 
mills.  The  president  of  the  federation  stated  before 
said  commission  that  no  grievance  existed  against  the 
mine  owners. 

It  has  been  contended,  and  apparently  believed,  that 
this  strike  was  called  because  of  the  failure  of  the 
Legislature  to  enact  an  eight-hour  law.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  the  strike  at  Colorado  City  was  called  on 
the  14th  of  February,  some  five  or  six  weeks  before 
the  adjournment  of  the  Legislature,  which  then  had 
under  consideration  an  eight-hour  law,  and  at  the 
same  time  when  every  indication  pointed  to  the  enact- 
ment thereof.  The  Standard  I\Iill,  at  which  the  strike 
occurred,  had  been  an  eight-hour  plant  for  five  years, 
working  the  eight-hour  day  in  every  department  save 
one,  and  that  one  employing  but  a  small  proportion  of 
its  men.  In  his  testimony  before  the  governor's  com- 
mission, above  referred  to,  Mr.  Moyer,  president  of 
the  federation,  in  response  to  the  direct  question  as  to 
whether  or  not  he  had  any  complaint  to  make  as  to 
the  hours  of  labor,  replied,  "None  whatever.** 

So  far  as  the  Cripple  Creek  district  is  concerned, 
the  mine  workers  have  worked  a  maximum  of  eight 
hours  per  day  for  over  ten  years,  and  out  of  this  time 
one-half  hour  is  allowed  for  luncheon,   receiving  the 

159 


union  scale  of  wages,  which  is  a  minimum  of  $3  and 
an  average  of  nearly  $4  per  day. 

FOUR   THOUSAND   QUIT   WORK. 

In  response  to  the  call  for  a  strike  in  the  Cripple 
Creek  district  some  4,000  men  discontinued  work,  and 
every  mine  except  one  was  effectually  closed.  The 
sheriff  and  nearly  every  peace  officer  of  the  county 
were  members  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners 
and  owed  their  positions  to  the  votes  and  influence  of 
that  organization.  Almost  immediately  after  the  call- 
ing of  the  strike  the  mine  owners  decided  to  open 
their  mines  as  rapidly  as  possible.  One  property  was 
opened  under  heavy  private  guard.  Early  in  Septem- 
ber, however,  an  effort  was  made  to  bring  about  the 
general  opening  of  the  mines  of  the  district.  As  soon 
as  this  was  done  picketing  and  intimidation  and 
murderous  assults  were  resorted  to. 

I  well  knew  the  history  and  character  of  this  organ- 
ization. It  is,  in  fact,  a  matter  of  common  knowledge 
in  Colorado  that  for  ten  years  this  federation  has 
stopped  at  nothing  to  accomplish  its  purpose.  Threats, 
intimidation,  assaults,  dynamite  outrages  and  murders 
have  everywhere  characterized  its  policy.  It  has  been 
the  occasion  of  more  trouble  and  expense  to  the  state 
than  all  other  causes  combined,  including  Indian  raids. 
It  has  never  had  a  strike  that  has  not  been  bloody. 
The  catalogue  of  its  crimes  affrights  humanity.  In 
times  of  strike  its  action  has  amounted  to  open  in- 
surrection against  the  state. 

QUOTES    PRESIDENT    BOYCE. 

The  leaders  of  this  organization  have  instilled  into 

160 


the  minds  of  its  membership  the  necessity  of  arming 
themselves  for  the  purpose  of  resisting  constituted 
authorities.  In  his  speech  dehvered  in  Salt  Lake  City 
in  1897  Mr.  Boyce,  then  president  of  the  Western 
Federation  of  Miners  and  the  man  who  organized  the 
Colorado  branch  of  this  organization,  said : 

"I  deem  it  important  to  direct  your  attention  to 
Article  II  of  the  constitutional  amendments  of  the 
United  States — 'the  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and 
bear  arms  shall  not  be  infringed.'  This  you  should 
comply  with  immediately.  Every  union  should  have 
a  rifle  club.  I  strongly  advise  you  to  provide  every 
member  with  the  latest  improved  rifle,  which  can  be 
obtained  from  the  factory  at  a  nominal  price.  I  en- 
treat you  to  take  action  on  this  important  question,  so 
that  in  two  years  we  can  hear  the  inspiring  music  of 
the  martial  tread  of  25,000  armed  men  in  the  ranks 
of  labor." 

This  utterance  is  in  line  with  advice  repeated  and 
reiterated  by  other  leaders  of  the  organization. 

Nor  have  these  words  been  sterile  of  fruit.  In 
every  strike  inaugurated  by  this  union  in  the  state  of 
Colorado  has  been  followed  the  precedent  set  in 
Idaho  in  1892,  when  1,000  men  armed  themselves 
with  rifles,  pillaged  boldly  from  the  state  armory,  and 
openly  proceeded  to  take  life  and  destroy  property  by 
dynamiting  the  Bunker  Hill  and  Sullivan  mill. 

SOME  BITS   OF   HISTORY. 

In  1894  federation  members,  armed  to  the  teeth,  in- 
trenched and  picketed,  and  with  precise  military  or- 

11  i6i 


ganization,  defiantly  held  prisoners  for  exchange  on 
Bull  Hill  in  Cripple  Creek. 

In  1896  federation  members  killed  in  open  conflict 
on  the  streets  of  Leadville  citizens  of  Lake  county, 
and  did  these  murders  with  rifles  bought  and  paid  for 
by  the  local  executive  committee  of  the  federation. 

In  San  Miguel  county,  Vincent  St.  John,  president 
of  the  local  union  of  the  Western  Federation,  bought 
and  paid  for  250  rifles,  with  which  he  armed  his 
federation  followers,  and  these  guns  were  used  in 
broad  daylight  on  non-union  miners  at  the  Smuggler- 
Union  mine  in  one  of  the  most  inhuman  and  barbar- 
ous crimes  ever  committed  in  the  name  of  any  cause. 

In  Lake  City  in  1898  again  these  lawless  men  stole 
rifles  from  the  state  armory  and  were  prepared  to  use 
them  to  uphold  their  demands,  and  finally  out  of  the 
union  hall  at  Victor  there  surrendered  on  June  6  of 
this  year  sixty-two  members  of  the  Western  Federa- 
tion of  Miners,  bearing  among  them  thirty-five  rifles, 
thirty-two  revolvers  and  nine  shotguns,  which  were 
still  hot  with  shots  fired  at  citizens  and  at  the  uni- 
formed militia  of  the  state. 

This  record  convinced  me  that  the  overt  acts  which 
had  been  committed  in  Cripple  Creek  were  but  fore- 
runners of  others,  and  that  with  the  executive  officers 
of  Teller  county  in  direct  collusion  with  this  organiza- 
tion it  would  be  but  a  few  days  until  a  reign  of  terror 
involving  loss  of  life  and  property  would  be  estab- 
lished in  that  district.  The  federation  is  led  and  abso- 
lutely controlled  by  unscrupulous  men.  Only  two  of 
the  executive  committee  are  residents  of  the  state  and 

162 


none  of  the  committee  has  anything  in  common  with 
the  state's  interests.  The  character  and  history  of 
this  federation  must  be  held  constantly  in  view  in 
determining  whether  or  not  the  policy  I  have  pursued 
is  wise  and  proper.  There  is  no  other  organization 
with  such  character  and  such  a  history  in  the  United 
States. 

WHY    TROOPS    WERE    CALLED    OUT. 

I  knew  and  realized  this  when  the  strike  was  in- 
augurated in  Cripple  Creek.  I  was  requested  by  rep- 
resentatives of  the  mine  operators,  representative  citi- 
zens of  the  district  and  the  mayor  of  Victor  to  send 
the  troops  to  the  Cripple  Creek  district.  Before  re- 
sponding to  this  demand,  however,  I  sent  a  commis- 
sion composed  of  Hon.  N.  C.  Miller,  attorney-general 
of  the  state ;  Gen.  John  Chase,  who  at  that  time  com- 
manded the  military  of  the  state,  and  Hon.  T.  E. 
McClelland,  ex-United  States  prosecuting  attorney, 
that  they  might  investigate  the  conditions  in  person 
and  report  to  me.  In  response  to  the  recommenda- 
tion of  this  commission  troops  were  ordered  to  the 
Cripple  Creek  district  on  September  4,  the  commission 
having  convinced  me  that  only  in  this  manner  could 
the  peace  and  quiet  of  Teller  county  be  maintained 
and  men  protected  in  their  right  to  follow  their 
usual  vocation. 

There  is  no  higher  duty  devolving  upon  the  execu- 
tive of  any  state  than  that  of  aflFording  protection  to 
men  who  desire  to  labor.  In  aflFording  that  protection 
it  later  became  necessary,  in  my  judgment,  to  confine 
certain  men  in  military  guardhouses  as  one  of  the  saf- 

163 


est  and  most  expeditious  methods  of  restoring  order. 
It  was  loudly  proclaimed  that  this  was  without 
authority  of  law.  The  question  was  submitted  to  the 
Supreme  Court  and  the  action  of  the  militia  in  that 
respect  fully  sustained. 

The  law-abiding  citizens  of  the  state  need  not  be 
alarmed  by  the  frenzied  cry  that  they  are  all  in  danger 
of  incarceration  if  the  governor  has  such  power.  It 
is  a  useful  and  a  necessary  power  and  the  class  that 
should  dread  its  exercise  is  not  numerous.  In  this  re- 
gard I  pursued  the  course  which  seemed  wisest  and 
best  and  I  cannot  seek  higher  authority  for  its  legality 
than  the  Supreme  Court. 

PRAISE  FOR  STATE  GUARD. 

There  may  have  been  occasional  indiscretions  of 
officers  or  men,  as  is  inevitable  with  a  large  body  not 
accustomed  to  such  service,  but  whenever  such  in- 
stances have  been  brought  to  my  attention  they  have 
been  promptly  and  properly  dealt  with  and  the  na- 
tional guard  of  the  state  has  been  maintained  on  a  high 
standard. 

The  troops  were  in  the  Cripple  Creek  district  from 
September  4,  1903,  to  April  ii,  1904,  in  diminishing 
numbers  as  conditions  permitted.  The  general  policy 
pursued  in  Cripple  Creek  was  followed  in  other  parts 
of  the  state  and  particularly  in  Telluride,  where  the 
excesses  and  crimes  of  the  federation  had  been  still 
more  inhuman  than  in  any  other  district  and  the  reign 
of  terror  still  more  complete.  Order  now  prevails 
there  and  it  is  believed  that  the  people  of  that  district 
nay  at  last  enjoy  peace  and  quiet. 

164 


Tlie  trouble  in  the  Cripple  Creek  district  had  ap- 
parently subsided.  The  last  of  the  troops  were  with- 
drawn, as  I  have  stated,  on  April  ii,  1904.  The  mines 
were  all  being  operated  with  a  full  quota  of  men,  who 
were  not  affiliated  with  the  Western  Federation  of 
Miners,  save  only  the  Portland  mine,  where  many 
federation  members  were  employed.  The  lawlessness 
which  has  everywhere  characterized  the  methods  of 
that  federation  seemed  for  a  time  to  have  been  aban- 
doned by  it.  The  district  apparently  was  destined  to 
enjoy  a  period  of  peace.  But  it  proved  to  be  only  the 
calm  before  the  storm.  At  about  3  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  June  6  a  mine  of  dynamite  was  exploded 
by  means  of  an  infernal  machine  placed  underneath 
the  station  platform  at  Independence,  and  thirteen  men 
were  instantly  blown  to  fragments  and  many  others 
mutilated  and  maimed  for  life.  All  these  men  were 
non-union  miners,  about  to  board  a  train  for  their 
homes  in  the  district. 

This  infamous  outrage,  following  as  it  did  years  of 
intimidation,  threats,  countless  assaults  and  murders, 
was  the  last  of  the  series  which  had  caused  a  veritable 
reign  of  terror  in  that  mining  district.  The  citizens 
of  the  county,  inexpressibly  shocked  at  this  wholesale 
murder  of  innocent  men,  determined  that  the  com- 
munity must  be  rid  of  the  authors  and  instigators  of 
such  crimes. 

THE  DEPORTATION   OF    MEN. 

A  public  meeting  was  held  in  Victor  the  afternoon 
following  the  Independence  outrage,  and  while  the 
meeting  was  being  addressed  the  crowd  was  fired  upon 

165 


from  the  federation  store  and  union  hall.  Two  non- 
union miners  were  shot  and  killed  and  six  others 
wounded.  The  local  troops  were  called  out  the  same 
evening  at  the  request  of  the  mayor  of  Victor,  to  pre- 
vent the  excesses  that  seemed  inevitable. 

When  the  excitement  had  subsided  somewhat  and 
the  county  was  still  under  quasi-military  rule  it  was 
found  that  there  were  several  hundred  members  of  the 
Western  Federation  in  the  district  who  would  not 
work  and  had  resolved  that  others  should  not  if  by 
such  methods  as  those  employed  at  the  Independence 
station  they  could  be  driven  or  frightened  away. 

It  became  apparent  that  even  with  every  member  of 
the  national  guard  in  that  county  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble to  prevent  the  use  of  dynamite  in  the  stealthy  man- 
ner always  employed  by  the  federation.  The  moun- 
tains and  gulches  of  that  rugged  country  afford  a 
multitude  of  safe  places  for  reconnoiter  and  hiding. 
The  troops  which  had  already  been  there  a  greater 
part  of  the  year  could  not  be  maintained  indefinitely 
without  incurring  immense  additional  expense.  The 
only  safe  and  available  remedy  seemed  to  be  to  dis- 
perse the  radical  members.  If  all  of  them  had  not 
personally  participated  in  the  outrages  they  had  at  least 
stood  approvingly  by  and  given  their  support,  encour- 
agement and  protection. 

If  these  men  were  scattered  the  avenues  which  ten 
years  of  organization  and  association  had  opened  for 
crime  in  that  district  would  be  closed.  It  would  re- 
quire much  time  in  any  other  community  before  they 
could  gather  about  them  a  new  band  of  conspirators 

i66 


with  the  inclination  and  daring  to  inaugurate  in  a  new 
field  another  condition  of  terrorism.  These  men,  as  I 
have  said,  had  determined  never  to  yield  the  strike. 
The  mine  owners  had  resolved  not  to  employ  again  the 
members  of  that  organization.  Therefore  the  only 
employment  which  remained  for  them  was  that  of 
stirring  up  strife — committing  depredations  and  in- 
timidating by  inhuman  crimes  the  working  miners. 

I  resolved  that  they  should  be  dispersed  and  I 
dispersed  them.  This  was  done,  however,  only  after 
careful  investigation  of  each  individual  case. 

I  hope  and  believe  that  these  men  so  sent  from  the 
district  will,  when  released  from  the  evil  influences 
of  a  criminal  leadership,  return  to  lawful  living  and 
resolve  that  a  recognition  of  the  rights  which  the  laws 
confer  is  the  proper  guide  for  conduct. 

DEFENDS  USE  OF  MILITIA. 

From  what  I  have  said  and  from  what  is  within  the 
knowledge  of  every  citizen  of  the  state,  it  will  be  seen 
that  disturbances  have  been  limited  to  the  mining  and 
its  allied  industries.  It  has  been  charged  repeatedly 
that  the  militia  has  been  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
mine  owners  to  oppress  labor.  The  injustice  of  the 
charge  is  apparent,  but  it  will  doubtless  continue  to  be 
made.  Tlie  militia  was  employed  to  restore  order  and 
to  protect  labor  and  property  in  the  rights  to  which 
each  is  entitled  under  the  law.  The  militia  opposed 
the  wishes  and  purposes  of  the  federation  because  that 
organization  was  attempting  to  prevent  by  violence 
the  operation  of  mines  and  mills.     It  is  again  charged 

167 


that  I  have  been  engaged  in  a  war  upon  unions  gener- 
ally, and  strenuous  and  repeated  efforts  are  being 
made  to  play  upon  the  passions  of  union  men.  I  do 
not  believe  the  efforts  will  be  successful.  I  do  not 
believe  the  conservative  union  men  of  the  state  will 
feel  called  upon  to  adopt  the  policy  of  the  leaders  of 
the  federation,  nor  can  I  believe  they  will  sanction  it. 
I  believe  they  will  be  able  to  discriminate  between 
their  own  unions  and  principles,  and  the  socialistic, 
anarchistic  objects  and  methods  of  the  federation.  In 
the  ten  years  of  its  existence  the  Western  Federa- 
tion of  Miners  has  involved  the  state  in  a  cash  outlay 
for  the  militia  of  more  than  $2,000,000. 

I  propose  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  to  "see  to  it 
that  the  laws  are  faithfully  executed,"  and  in  the  ac- 
complishment of  that  purpose  I  shall  not  inquire 
whether  the  individual  entitled  to  protection  is,  or  is 
not,  a  member  of  any  labor  organization.  No  one  can 
appreciate  more  than  I,  not  only  the  right  and  wisdom 
of  laboring  men  to  join  together  for  the  purpose  of 
bettering  their  wages  and  working  conditions,  and  no 
one  can  believe  more  heartily  than  I  in  a  fair  wage 
and  reasonable  hours. 

It  will  be  a  matter  of  great  regret  to  me  if  the 
laboring  men  of  this  state  fail  to  see  that  I  am  fight- 
ing their  battle,  for  I  sincerely  believe  that  organized 
labor  has  no  more  dangerous  enemy  than  the  West- 
ern Federation  of  Miners,  which  is  seeking  under  the 
cloak  of  organized  labor  to  protect  itself  alike  in  the 
promulgation  of  its  dishonest  socialistic  theories, 
which   recognize   no   right   to   private   property,   and 

168 


from  the  result  of  its  anarchistic  tenets  and  tenden- 
cies. Legitimate  labor  organizations  of  necessity 
suffer  from  the  criminal  aggressions  of  the  federa- 
tion. 

POLICY   NOT  TOO  VIGOROUS. 

Its  claim  to  the  character  of  a  labor  organization  is 
its  only  title  to  respectability.  I  believe  that  no 
greater  good  can  be  conferred  upon  the  cause  of 
union  labor  striving  to  better  the  condition  of  its 
members  than  for  the  members  of  such  legitimate  labor 
unions  to  condemn  the  methods  of  the  federation. 

Those  who  are  charged  with  the  duty  of  seeing 
that  the  lives  and  property  of  citizens  are  respected 
have  difficult  and  perplexing  problems  to  solve  in 
times  of  insurrection  and  great  public  stress. 

I  have  had  to  deal  with  an  organization  which  has 
no  counterpart  in  this  country.  Its  official  proclama- 
tions, full  of  defiance  and  challenge,  issued  from  time 
to  time,  have  amounted,  as  has  been  said,  to  "a 
declaration  of  war  against  the  state." 

I  have  met  the  challenge  with  a  policy  none  too 
vigorous  for  the  outlawry  I  was  called  to  oppose.  But 
through  it  all  I  have  had  but  one  object  and  that  was 
to  show  the  people  of  Colorado  that  the  laws  will  be 
upheld — that  a  criminal  organization  cannot  dictate 
the  policy  of  this  administration,  and  that  everywhere 
within  the  borders  of  Colorado  property  shall  be 
secure  and  labor  shall  be  free. 

James  H.  Peabody,  Governor. 


169 


EVERY  WORKMAN  SHOULD  HAVE  OPPOR- 
TUNITY TO  WIN  ON  HIS  MERITS. 


We  commend  to  the  careful  consideration  of  em- 
ployers and  employes  the  articles  in  this  issue  on 
"A  Progressive  Step  in  Unionism"  and  ''Labor's 
Interest  in  Law  and  Order." 

Again  we  seek  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  both 
divisions  of  the  army  of  industry,  officers  and  men, 
employers  and  employes,  that  the  true  function  of 
trades  unions  is  to  seek  preference  in  employment  for 
their  members  on  the  basis  of  superior  merits  of  serv- 
ice rendered  instead  of  the  basis  of  unreasoning  force. 
In  public  and  private  employment  every  workman 
should  have  opportunity  to  win  position  and  promo- 
tion upon  the  merit  of  his  service  record,  regardless 
of  all  other  considerations.  When  this  is  the  estab- 
lished order  in  every  department  of  human  activity 
progress  and  prosperty  will  be  given  an  impetus  in 
comparison  with  which  all  past  records  will  appear  of 
small  importance. 

We  congratulate  the  members  of  the  Typographical 
Union  upon  the  step  of  progress  it  has  taken  in  abol- 
ishing a  rule  which  made  priority  of  service  instead 
of  merit  the  basis  of  promotion.  We  congratulate 
the  people  of  this  country  upon  this  evidence  that 
trade  unionism  is  becoming  "sane  and  safe."  In  all 
selections  for  employment,  for  determining  who  shall 
be  retained  when  a  reduction  in  force  must  be  made, 
who  shall  be  promoted  when  vacancies  in  any  of  the 
higher  classes  are  to  be  filled,  there  can  be  no  sounder 

170 


rule  than  that  of  merit.  When  every  vacancy  in  the 
rank  of  second  Heutenant  is  filled  by  the  promotion  of 
the  non-commissioned  officer  having  the  best  record 
among  the  non-commissioned  officers  of  the  regiment 
there  will  be  an  upward  lift  in  the  qualifications  of 
non-commissioned  officers  and  lieutenants  that  can  be 
induced  in  no  other  way,  and  life  in  a  regiment  in 
which  this  rule  is  impartially  enforced  will  be  won- 
derfully improved  for  both  officers  and  men.  Beyond 
this  the  rule  will  spell  efficiency  through  the  entire 
list  of  grades,  from  lowest  to  highest. 

Men  who  win  on  their  merit  and  who  are  encour- 
aged by  the  rules  of  their  associations  to  win  all  they 
can  will  be  honest,  energetic,  intelligent.     They  will 
be  least  likely  of  all  men  to  subject  employers  and 
employes   to  the   disasters   of   an   unnecessary   strike. 
The  fact  is,  when  the  counsels  of  such  men  prevail  in 
trade    unions  they    will    never   find    a   good    time  to 
strike.    They  will  induce  fair  treatment  by  being  fair. 
They  will  use  their  abilities  in  reducing  the  wastes  of 
friction.     In  this  direction  prosperity  and  progress  lie. 
The  policy  of  rewarding  merit  by  continuous  em- 
ployment,   preference   in   employment  and   promotion 
will  exert  a  wider  influence  than  the  welfare  of  the 
persons  immediately  concerned.     Such  a  policy  gives 
to  every  workman  a  vital  interest  in  the  correct  and 
impartial   administration  of  all  rules  by  which  merit 
is    to   be   determined.      Through    this    workmen    will 
learn  that    their    worst    enemy    is    the  man    who    is 
guilty  of  attempting  to  evade  or  disobey  these  rules. 
Obedience   to   law  is   the   only   way   in    which  liberty 

171 


can  be  safeguarded.  This  lesson  so  learned  will  be 
of  inestimable  value  to  the  whole  of  society.  Such 
a  lesson  is  necessary  to  the  creation  of  a  clear-cut 
public  opinion  that  will  secure  the  enforcement  of  all 
laws,  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  order. 


A  PROGRESSIVE  STEP  IN  UNIONISM. 


EDITORIAL  :      OHIO  STATE  JOURNAL. 


The  action  of  the  International  Typographical 
Union  convention  at  St.  Louis  in  abolishing  what 
has  been  known  as  the  priority  rule  is  a  distinct  ad- 
vance  in   trade   unionism. 

The  Typographical  Union  is  one  of  the  oldest, 
strongest  and  most  ably  conducted  of  American  labor 
organizations,  with  more  than  50,000  members.  For 
years  it  has  had  an  ironclad  law  which  required  the 
foreman  of  a  union  office,  in  case  of  a  vacancy  on  the 
regular  force,  to  fill  it  with  the  man  who  had  been 
longest  on  the  substitute  list.  Priority  in  the  waiting 
list  and  not  efficiency  was  thus  made  a  standard  for 
employment. 

This  rule  frequently  worked  a  hardship  to  employ- 
ers and  foremen,  and  also  discriminated  against  the 
quality  of  a  man's  work.  It  was  not  material  whether 
a  new  substitute  was  a  superior  workman  or  not,  he 
could  not  be  given  a  regular  place  over  the  head  of 
an  inferior  workman  who  had  been  on  the  substitute 
list  for  a  longer  time.  The  rule  was  not  always  ob- 
served, but  the  principle  was  there. 

172 


The  abrogation  of  this  rule  is  a  distinct  recognition 
of  the  American  principle  which  grants  that  the  best 
man  ought  to  win.  It  is  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
importance  of  quality  in  workmanship  that  is  one  of 
the  broadest  and  strongest  steps  any  American  union 
has  taken  in  recent  years.  One  of  the  objections 
which  has  most  frequently  been  urgx^d  against  union 
labor  is  that  it  undertook  to  place  all  its  members  on 
a  dead  level  where  there  was  no  inducement  to  rise 
above  mediocrity.  The  first-class  workman  received 
the  same  wage  as  his  poorer  fellow.  The  tendency  of 
this  was  to  remove  some  of  the  stimulus  to  the  high- 
est endeavor,  and  by  that  much  to  reduce  the  average 
standard  of  the  craft. 

The  repeal  of  the  priority  law  by  the  Typographical 
Union  opens  the  way  to  a  fuller  recognition  of  ability. 
It  assures  the  superior  workman  more  steady  em- 
ployment and  recognizes  the  principle  that  a  man 
should  win  on  his  merits.  In  this  respect,  it  is  a 
notable  departure  from  what  has  been  a  fixed  rule  in 
most  union  organizations  and  one  which  places  the 
International  Typographical  Union  in  the  vanguard 
of  progress. 

It  is  a  reasonable,  sensible  change  which  will  tend 
to  promote  a  higher  standard  of  workmanship  and 
will  win  for  the  I.  T.  U.  new  friends  among  all  fair- 
minded  men. 


173 


LABOR'S  INTEREST   IN   LAW   AND   ORDER. 


editorial:    Chicago  chronicle. 


Whenever  the  constituted  authorities  interfere  with 
strike  rioting  and  slugging  the  labor  unionists  in- 
variably assume  that  the  interference  is  due  to  sym- 
pathy w^ith  the  employers.  They  denounce  the  police 
and  the  military,  whenever  lawlessness  comes  to  such 
a  pass  that  it  becomes  necessary  to  call  the  latter  into 
service,  as  the  hired  minions  of  capital. 

When  they  do  this  the  unionists  further  assume 
that  they  have  a  right  to  organize  mobs  and  "educa- 
tional committees"  to  destroy  property  and  slug  and 
kill  in  order  to  gain  their  ends  whenever  they  go  out 
on  strike.  They  assume  that  the  authorities  in  dis» 
persing  their  mobs  and  arresting  their  sluggers  are 
assailing  their  inalienable  rights  at  the  behest  of 
capital. 

It  can  hardly  be  said  in  defense  of  the  unionists 
that  they  do  not  know  better.  To  suppose  they  really 
believe  they,  as  organized  laborers,  have  a  right  to  do 
things  which  are  criminal,  when  done  by  men  not  so 
organized,  would  be  to  insult  their  intelligence. 

If  they  do  not  know  that  lawlessness  is  just  as 
criminal  in  them  as  it  is  in  the  hoodlums  and  the 
habitual  predatory  parasites  of  society  the  law  pre- 
sumes that  they  know  it. 

They  are  not  excusable  on  the  score  of  ignorance 
if  they  disturb  the  public  peace  and  commit  crimes 
against  persons  and  property  or  if  they  attempt  to  de- 

174 


stroy  respect  for  the  public  authorities  by  representing 
them  as  partisans  of  capital,  as  opposed  to  labor. 

It  is  the  sworn  duty  of  the  authorities  to  preserve 
the  peace,  to  disperse  mobs,  to  arrest  criminals,  to 
protect  the  people  against  the  violence  of  lawless  men, 
whether  they  are  members  of  labor  unions  or  of 
holdup  unions. 

In  doing  this  they  are  not  the  servants  of  capital. 
They  are  the  servants  of  society,  of  rich  and  poor,  of 
capitalist  and  laborer,  of  employer  and  employed 
alike.  It  is  their  duty  to  protect  the  public  whenever 
to  their  knowledge  the  public  is  assailed,  whether 
called  upon  by  anybody  to  do  so  or  not. 

Organized  laborers  undoubtedly  know  all  this  very 
well,  but  there  is  one  thing  of  which  they  seem  to  be 
strangely  ignorant,  and  that  is  that  no  members  of 
society  are  more  deeply  interested  than  they  are  in 
the  maintenance  of  high  respect  for  law  and  for  all 
who  are  duly  appointed  to  administer  and  enforce 
the  law. 

They  have  rights,  in  the  exercise  and  enjoyment  of 
which  they  are  protected  by  the  law  and  its  ministers. 
If  these  were  overthrown  they  would  soon  find  them- 
selves in  a  sorry  plight.  They  would  find  themselves 
under  the  mailed  hand  and  the  iron  heel,  as  were 
their  kind  in  the  days  of  the  robber  barons  of 
Europe,  as  are  the  workers  of  Russia  and  Turkey 
to-day. 

Organized  laborers  will  do  well  to  think  of  these 
things  and  realize  that  if  they  should  succeed  for  a 
moment  in  nullifying  the  laws  and  paralyzing  the  arm 

175 


of  lawful  authority  they  would  soon  fall  back  to  a 
condition  from  which  they  have  slowly  emerged  in 
the  course  of  many  generations  into  an  atmosphere  of 
liberty  and  of  comparative  independence,  comfort 
and  even  luxury.  They  will  do  well  to  think  of  the 
risks  they  incur  when  they  lift  their  hands  to  strike 
doivn  the  muniments  which  have  been  won  and  built 
by  them  and  for  them  at  untold  cost  and  sacrifice. 


INDUSTRIAL    WASTES    OF    LABOR    WARS. 


Probably  in  no  similar  period  has  as  great  an  ad- 
vance been  made  in  the  utilization  of  by-products  and 
the  saving  of  industrial  wastes  as  during  the  past 
fifty  years.  To  this  end  untiring  efforts  of  inventors, 
masters  of  organization  and  executive  administration, 
backed  by  ample  capital,  have  been  continuously  de- 
voted. Every  gain  has  opened  a  new  source  of  profit 
and  has  been  the  means  of  supplying  to  consumers 
commodities  of  improved  quality  at  reduced  prices. 
Many  useful  and  valuable  commodities  are  now  im- 
portant factors  in  the  exchanges  of  commerce  which 
are  wholly  produced  from  materials  that  were  treated 
as  waste,  having  no  value,  fifty  years  ago.  If  a  com- 
plete record  of  all  gains  made  in  this  direction  were 
submitted  its  revelations  would  be  astounding.  This 
fact  makes  still  more  astounding  the  enormous  indus- 
trial waste  to  which  the  people  of  this  and  other  coun- 
tries have  submitted,  and  are  submitting,  caused  by 
labor  wars.  If  a  complete  record  of  all  losses  caused 
by  labor  wars  were  submitted  it  is  not  improbable  that 

176 


it  would  then  be  clearly  seen  that  the  wastes  of  labor 
wars  have  neutralized  the  gains  made  in  perfecting 
the  processes  of  production  and  transportation.  A 
single  instance  will  serve  to  illustrate  this  point. 

It  is  reported  that  the  recent  butchers'  strike  caused 
a  loss  to  the  packers  of  $7,500,000  and  that  the  loss  in 
wages  amounted  to  $5,000,000,  a  total  wastage  of 
$12,500,000,  caused  by  one  strike  within  the  short 
period  of  sixty  days.  The  splendid  organization,  the 
unequaled  facilities,  the  ample  capital  and  the  energy, 
skill  and  executive  ability  commanded  by  the  pack- 
ers, and  directed  to  the  utilization  and  saving  of 
wastes,  have  not  been  able  to  effect  a  gain  equal  to 
this  loss  during  a  much  longer  period  of  operation. 
Experiences  such  as  this  show  the  imperative  neces- 
sity of  directing  eflfort  to  overcoming  the  wastes 
caused  by  friction  between  the  working  parts  of  in- 
dustrial organization,  capital  and  labor.  No  gain  that 
is  now  possible  can  equal  in  importance  and  value  that 
which  will  be  realized  by  overcoming  the  industrial 
wastes  of  labor  wars. 


MUTUAL    LOYALTY. 


Loyalty  to  fair  employers-  should  he  reivarded  by 
loyalty  to  fair  employes. 

Mr.  George  Welsh  Weber  discusses  the  above 
proposition  in  this  issue. 

The  elimination  of  friction  from  the  machinery  of 
production  has  demanded  the  services  of  unknown 
numbers  of  the  most  skillful  mechanics,  designers  and 

12  ^77 


engineers  who  have  engaged  in  the  development  of 
industries  of  every  kind.  Every  gain  made  has 
brought  rich  rewards  to  the  successful  worker. 

In  the  past  effort  to  remove  friction  has  been  con- 
centrated almost  wholly  upon  mechanical  friction,  to 
what  purpose  the  increased  efficiency  of  all  kinds  of 
machinery  attests.  Every  employer  and  workman 
knows  that  such  results  are  not  achieved  without 
study,  work,  expense  and  experimentation.  And  they 
know  that,  while  there  are  numerous  examples  of  fail- 
ures, there  are  more  successes,  and  as  a  general  result 
the  productiveness  of  industries  has  been  increased 
enormously  by  efforts  to  remove  mechanical  friction. 

In  the  lesson  taught  by  this  experience  there  is 
shown  what  must  be  done  to  remove  friction  between 
the  human  parts  of  the  machinery  of  production. 
Here  is  opportunity  for  the  full  exercise  of  the  best 
hearts  and  brains  employed  in  doing  any  part  of  the 
work  of  production  or  distribution.  The  rewards  of 
success  can  only  be  estimated  by  calculating  the 
wastes  and  losses  that  are  continually  being  caused  by 
friction  between  human  parts.  There  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  same  amount  of  study,  work,  expense 
and  experimentation  that  has  been  devoted  to  the 
problems  of  the  removal  of  mechanical  friction,  when 
devoted  to  the  problems  of  the  removal  of  human 
friction,  will  be  rewarded  with  an  equal  or  a  greater 
success. 

Fundamental  to  success  in  this  field  of  effort  is 
faith  in  each  other's  fairness,  justified  by  experience, 
on  the  part  of  employers  and  employes.    Each  estab- 

178 


lishment  is  an  organized  unit,  the  welfare  of  which  is 
dependent  upon  the  skill,  ability  and  continuous  en- 
ergy of  all  having  a  part  in  its  operation.  Success 
must  be  achieved  in  competition  with  all  other  estab- 
lishments similarly  employed.  In  this  competition, 
careful,  skillful,  energetic,  loyal  workmen  are  as 
essential  as  the  best  up-to-date  machinery.  In  fact, 
they  are  more  essential.  It  is  manifestly  to  the  inter- 
est of  the  employer  to  draw  to  himself  and  to  develop 
a  body  of  employes  possessing  these  qualifications  in 
a  notably  high  degree.  How  can  he  expect  to  do  this 
if  he  fails  to  establish  a  reputation  for  being  fair, 
for  being  loyal  to  the  men  who  are  loyal  to  him? 

The  competitor  who  can  produce  a  commodity  at 
lowest  cost  is  the  one  who  secures  the  best  profit. 
What  one  may  gain  by  imposing  hard  unsanitary  con- 
ditions upon  his  employes,  or  by  the  lowest  wages  for 
which  he  can  get  men  to  work,  must  be  made  up  to 
another  who  studies  to  make  the  conditions  of  em- 
ployment less  exacting,  more  healthful,  and  willingly 
pays  the  highest  wages,  by  the  superior  productive- 
ness of  his  employes.  If  this  is  not  done  the  unfair 
employer  will  force  the  fair  employer  to  the  wall. 

Conditions  and  wages  of  employment  are  not  in- 
exorable. Cost  of  production  is.  Certainty  of  profit 
will  induce  any  employer  to  agree  to  any  conditions 
and  wages  that  may  be  demanded.  Employes  must 
make  their  employment  profitable  for  their  employer 
or  they  cannot  reasonably  expect  it  to  continue.  Fric- 
tion always  impairs  and  sometimes  destroys  profit. 
Employers  and  employes  should  unite  in  efforts  to  re- 

179 


move  friction  between  the  human  parts  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  industries. 


EMPLOYER     AND     EMPLOYE    AN     INDUS- 
TRIAL   UNIT. 


BY     GEORGE     WELSH     WEBER,     PUBLISHER     WEBER's 
WEEKLY,  CHICAGO. 


JOINT   INTEREST  IN   PROFITS. 

At  the  very  root  of  labor  troubles  is  the  error  that 
there  is  a  necessary  and  irrepressible  conflict  between 
employer  and  employe.  Where  such  a  condition  of 
hostility  exists  it  is  because  one  or  the  other,  and  per- 
haps both,  are  unfair  to  each  other.  In  the  original 
state  of  industry  there  was  no  conflict  between  em- 
ployer and  employe — capital  and  labor.  The  em- 
ployer, capitalist  and  employe  and  laborer  were  all 
one  and  the  same  person.  The  shoemaker  of  old 
times  was  all  four  combined  in  one.  Under  such  con- 
ditions there  was  no  tendency  for  disagreements  be- 
tween the  different  "interests"  of  the  industry.  It 
ought,  as  near  as  possible,  to  be  the  same  with  the  mod- 
ernized industry.  The  industry  should  be,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  a  unit.  The  economic  relationship  be- 
tween employer  and  employe  is  that  of  partners  hav- 
ing a  joint  interest,  not  in  the  ownership,  but  in  the 
profits,  of  the  industry.  While  this  relationship  has 
little  or  no  legal  status,  it  has  a  status  that  is  much 
higher  than  legislation  could  give  it.  It  is  governed 
by  the  law  of  necessity.  Capital  must  have  labor  and 
labor  must  have  capital.    It  is  an  enforced  partnership. 

i8o 


NO  DETERMINATIVE  RULE  FOR  DIVIDING  PROFITS. 

One  of  the  misfortunes  of  this  natural  partnership 
is  that  there  is  no  rule  determinative  of  how  the  profits 
shall  be  divided  between  capital  and  labor.  At  first 
glance  it  would  seem  as  though  some  ratio  ought  to  be 
fixed  so  that  a  workman  might  share  pro  rata  with 
the  employer  and  the  employer's  capital  in  the  profit 
arising  from  their  joint  efiforts.  But  a  more  thought- 
ful consideration  will  convince  that  such  a  plan  would 
be  extremely  difficult,  if  not  wholly  impracticable. 
One  of  the  difficulties  would  be  the  fact  that  capital 
must  accumulate  in  prosperous  times  in  order  to  with- 
stand depressions  of  trade.  Capital  must  take  chances. 
Labor  cannot  take  chances.  Labor  is  not  inclined  to 
save  when  wages  are  high  and  work  is  plenty.  If 
capital  made  the  same  division  with  labor  in  prosper- 
ous times  that  it  is  willing  to  make  in  dull  times  both 
capital  and  labor  would  be  bankrupt  in  times  of  busi- 
ness depression. 

UNITY      OF    ACTION      NECESSARY    FOR      GREATEST      PRO- 
DUCTIVE  CAPACITY. 

In  order  to  bring  about  the  greatest  productive  ca- 
pacity in  an  industry  there  must  be  unity  of  action 
among  all  the  integral  parts  of  the  factory.  But  I 
must  limit  my  discussion  to  the  relations  between  the 
employer  and  the  workman.  The  workman  should 
endeavor  to  give  his  energies  to  creating  the  greatest 
possible  product.  The  employer  should  endeavor  to 
give  the  workman  the  best  possible  conditions  under 
which  to  labor,  with  the  largest  share  of  the  joint 
profit  which  will  be  safe  for  the  interest  of  both  to 

i8i 


take  out  of  the  permanent  resources  of  the  business. 

This  view  of  the  matter  is  strengthened  when  it 
is  reflected  that  each  manufactory  is  an  industrial  unit 
and  has  in  competition  with  it  other  industrial  units 
in  the  same  line  of  industry,  manufacturing  the  same 
industrial  product.  As  one  goes  up  the  others  go 
down.  It  is  to  the  interest  of  the  workmen  that  all 
the  different  concerns  be  kept  abreast.  At  least  it  is 
the  height  of  unwisdom  for  the  employes  of  one 
factory  to  impede  and  retard  their  own  industry  by  in- 
terferences or  demands  which  in  the  end  will  compel 
abandonment  of  the  industry. 

Another  phase  of  the  matter  is  that  enhancing  the 
cost  of  a  manufactured  article  simply  reduces  the 
amount  consumed,  and  this  in  turn  reduces  the  num- 
ber of  employes  required  to  supply  what  the  dimin- 
ished market  requires. 

A  FUNDAMENTAL  ERROR  IN   TRADE  UNIONISM. 

The  employer  and  workmen  of  one  factory  consti- 
tute an  industrial  family  and  should  settle  their  own 
quarrels,  if  they  have  any,  without  calling  in  other 
industrial  families  to  tell  them  what  they  should  do  to 
one  another.  The  effort  of  the  employer  and  employe 
in  a  factory  should  be  to  be  fair  to  one  another.  "Loy- 
alty to  fair  employers  should  be  rewarded  by  loyalty  to 
fair  employes."  This  is  the  second  plank  in  Public 
Policy's  "platform  on  labor  problems."  Such  a  policy 
would  mean  that  the  employer,  acting  in  good  faith, 
would  endeavor  to  give  his  employe  a  fair  share  of 
the  joint  profit.  At  the  same  time  he  should  reward 
the  faithful  or  superior  workman  as  nearly  as  possible 

182 


in  proportion  to  his  merits.  The  workman  should 
reciprocate  by  increased  dihgence  and  faithfuhiess. 
I  am  incHned  to  think  that  the  fundamental  error  of 
trades  unionism  is  the  effort  of  the  trades  unionists  to 
put  and  keep  all  workmen  on  the  same  level.  The 
proposition  advanced  and  fought  for  by  trades  unions 
that  a  workman  shall  not  be  discharged  unless  the 
union  approves  of  the  discharge,  is  contrary  to  good 
business  policy,  uneconomic  and  unscientific.  Such 
requirements  are  not  established  by  the  unionists  to 
advance  the  cause  of  the  wage-worker  as  a  class,  but 
rather  to  take  care  of  the  worthless  workman  by  legis- 
lating him  into  equality  with  his  proficient  brother 
workmen. 

The  proposition  that  the  employer  shall  reward  the 
superior  and  extra  faithful  workman  carries  with  it 
the  corollary  that  the  unfaithful  and  incompetent 
workman  shall  be  discharged.  As  most  unions  are 
organized  at  this  time  the  employer  is  not  permitted 
to  do  anything  of  the  sort.  Therefore,  it  seems  to 
me  that  in  order  for  an  employer  to  be  fair  to  his 
workmen  as  individuals  it  is  to  a  great  extent  neces 
sary  that  the  union  abandon  the  position  it  has 
assumed  on  this  point. 


THE  ROUTE  TO  TRADE  PROSPERITY. 


Sound  business  management  requires  that  prefer- 
ence he  given  in  employment  and  promotion  to  good 
character,  good  work  and  length  of  service. 

Mr.   George  Welsh   Weber   discusses   this  proposi- 

183 


tion  in  this  issue  under  the  title  of  "Preference  for 
Superior  Workmen." 

We  worship  competition  as  the  force  that  gives 
Hfe  to  business.  We  know,  however,  that  the  law  of 
competition,  whether  fairly  or  unfairly  applied,  in- 
variably tends  to  create  monopoly.  Like  death,  its 
complete  success  would  be  its  irretrievable  defeat.  It 
would  be  the  final  destruction  of  that  upon  which  it 
feeds. 

Competition  always  forces  three  contingencies  upon 
an  employer: 

1.  To  convert  his  property  into  money  and  live  in 
peace  upon  the  principal,  and  the  interest  it  may  earn, 
for  the  remainder  of  his  days,  retiring  from  the  fight. 

2.  To  move  his  business  to  a  locality  where  condi- 
tions are  more  favorable  to  his  success. 

3.  To  attempt  to  win  success  by  discharging  em- 
ployes and  employing  persons  who  will  reduce  labor 
cost  by  working  for  less  wages  or  longer  hours,  or 
enforcing  such  terms  upon  those  already  employed. 

This  statement  of  the  alternatives  forced  by  com- 
petition upon  every  employer  spells  death  for  him  and 
death  for  his  employes  unless,  by  their  combined  ef- 
fort, the  terms  enforced  by  competition  can  be  success- 
fully met.  The  closing  of  the  business  destroys  op- 
portunity for  employment.  The  moving  of  the  busi- 
ness to  another  locality  has  the  same  result,  excepting 
for  the  few  employes  who  may  be  able  to  follow  it  to 
the  new  location.  The  lowering  of  wages  and  length- 
ening of  hours  means  a  lower  standard  of  living  for 
wage-earners.     Employers  cannot  permanently  enjoy 

184 


prosperity  under  conditions  that  do  not  bring  prosper- 
ity to  their  employes. 

In  a  recent  address  before  the  New  England  Cotton 
Manufacturers'  Association,  President  Walmsley  said : 

"Employers  must  realize  the  absolute  necessity  of 
harmonious  co-operation  and  combination  between  the 
employer  and  employe.  The  route  to  trade  prosperity 
lies  through  mutual  understanding.  Strikes  and  lock- 
outs are  a  clumsy  and  outrageous  remedy.  All  must 
admit  the  desirability  of  conciliation  to  take  the  place 
of  the  violent  methods  of  the  past.  With  a  reasonable 
security  against  strikers  and  lockouts,  the  maintenance 
of  the  markets  will  be  protected  and  additional  capital 
will  be  attracted  to  the  industry  which  gives  this  added 
security  to  investments.  Let  us,  without  reserve,  con- 
cede to  labor  its  legitimate  and  indisputable  claim  as 
an  important  factor  in  the  situation.  It  is  incumbent 
upon  each  to  respect  the  rights  of  the  other.  I  desire, 
however,  to  emphasize  in  the  most  unqualified  manner 
possible  that,  in  so  far  as  the  management  and  di- 
rection of  our  industrial  corporations  are  concerned, 
the  managers  alone  at  all  times  must  manage  and 
direct." 

Commenting  upon  Mr.  Walmsley's  address,  the 
editor  of  the  Wall  Street  Journal  says : 

"Such  fair  and  reasonable  language  from  a  repre- 
sentative of  great  employing  interests  is  most  timely 
and  refreshing.  More  talk  of  this  kind  on  the  part  of 
industrial  capital  would,  if  backed  by  corresponding 
action,  render  less  frequent  violent  and  disturbing 
conduct  on  the  part  of  organized  labor.     Mr.  Walms- 

i8s 


ley  recognizes  the  rights  of  the  men  employed  in  the 
cotton  mills  of  New  England,  and  dismisses  at  once 
any  remedy  for  the  situation  created  by  southern  com- 
petition that  involves  the  unreasonable  reduction  of 
wages  to  the  southern  level.  He  thus  recognizes  the 
rights  which  the  workmen  employed  in  the  cotton 
mills  of  New  England  have  in  the  permanence  and 
prosperity  of  the  industry  which  their  labor  has  in  no 
small  part  created.  He  would  not  abandon  them,  but 
seeks  a  solution  for  the  present  problem,  which  in- 
volves a  consideration  of  mutual  rights  of  both  New 
England  capital  and  New  England  labor.  At  the 
same  time  he  lays  stress  upon  the  manifest  right  of 
the  employer  to  freedom  of  management,  not  subject 
to  dictation  by  trade  unions.  All  this  is  reasonable 
and  just;  it  would  seem  as  if  no  fair-minded  member 
of  the  labor  organizations  could  resist  its  plain  logic. 
Such  talk  as  this  will  do  more  toward  settling  the  la- 
bor problem  than  all  the  strikes  and  lockouts  together." 
Management,  unhampered  by  dictation,  is  an  indis- 
pensable condition  for  success.  Efficient  operation 
cannot  be  divorced  from  free,  fair  and  intelligent 
management.  Such  management  includes  the  welfare 
of  employes  as  well  as  of  employers  or  owners. 
Against  such  management  no  intelligent  workingman 
or  intelligently  managed  trade  union  will  protest.  It 
is  unfair  and  unintelligent  management  that  merits 
condemnation.  That  such  management  is  too  fre- 
quently the  cause  of  labor  troubles  is  clearly  indicated 
by  Mr.  Weber  when  he  says :  "It  is  unfortunately  a 
fact  that  too  often  the  employer  is  an  accident  and 

i86 


has  no  training  for  his  position  other  than  that  which 
he  acquired  in  the  shop  he  controls." 

The  forces  that  work  for  righteousness  decree  that 
the  route  to  trade  prosperity  shall  be  opened  and 
traveled  by  sound  business  management  that  gives 
preference  in  employment  and  promotion  to  good 
character,  good  work  and  length  of  service. 

"Managers  alone  at  all  times  must  manage  and  di- 
rect." But  they  must  obey  the  law  of  righteousness 
or  themselves  and  others  must  suffer  for  their  sins. 
Man,  to  be  free,  must  be  as  free  to  do  wrong  as  to  do 
right,  but  when  he  chooses  to  do  wrong  the  day  of 
his  calamity  comes.  Frictionless  co-operation  between 
all  parts  of  industrial  units,  mechanical  and  human,  is 
indispensable  to  highest  efficiency,  to  the  true  welfare 
of  employers  and  employes,  prosperity  and  happiness 
for  both. 


PREFERENCE    FOR    SUPERIOR  WORKMEN. 


BY     GEORGE    WELSH     WEBER,    PUBLISHER     WEBER  S 
WEEKLY,    CHICAGO. 


THE    LABORER    IS    WORTHY  OF    HIS    HIRE. 

The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire.  This  is  biblical — 
axiomatic.  It  is  construed,  as  might  be  expected, 
against  the  employer,  as  if,  having  employed  the  la- 
borer, the  employer  was  about  to  dispute  his  obliga- 
tion to  pay  him.  But  there  is  another  aspect  of  the 
proposition  that  "the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire." 
And  that  is  that  the  laborer  ought  to  be  worthy  of 

187 


what  he  is  to  be  paid.  Going  still  further,  the  propo- 
sition may  properly  be  construed  to  be  that  the  laborer 
ought  to  be  paid  according  to  the  amount  and  merit 
of  his  labor. 

"Sound  business  management  requires  that  prefer- 
ence be  given  in  employment  and  promotion  to  good 
character,  good  work  and  length  of  service." 

The  foregoing  is  the  third  proposition  in  Public 
Policy's  labor  platform. 

THERE  CAN   BE  NO    CONTINUOUS   GOOD   WORK  WITHOUT 
GOOD    CHARACTER. 

The  character  and  cost  of  the  product  of  a  factory 
determines  the  salability  of  a  product.  The  merits  of 
these  two  elements  are  largely  dependent  on  the  in- 
dividual effort  of  the  workmen  in  the  factory.  There- 
fore, it  is  not  only  "sound  business  policy,"  but  im- 
peratively essential  to  success,  to  retain  only  those 
workmen  who  are  satisfactory.  And  the  workmen 
ought  to  have  a  good  record  outside  the  factory  as 
well  as  inside.  I  am  aware  that  "broad-minded"  per- 
sons— too  broad-minded — contend  that  the  employers 
should  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  morals  of  work- 
men, provided  they  do  their  work  well.  This  is  not  a 
safe  view.  A  workman  who  does  not  lead  a  correct 
life  outside  the  factory  cannot  be  relied  on  as  a  man 
in  any  capacity.  He  cannot  do  more  than  temporarily 
subordinate  his  natural  propensities  while  he  is  in 
the  factory.  Suppose  the  workman  be  an  engineer 
and  drinks  while  he  is  away  from  the  shop,  or  sup- 
pose he  handles  large  machinery,  hoists,  derricks,  and 
that  sort  of  thing.     On  the  steadiness  of  his  nervous 

i88 


system  depends  all  of  his  work,  and  the  time  must 
come  when  the  man  who  persists  in  misusing  his 
physical  forces  will  find  that  they  do  not  serve  him 
as  they  should.  Debauchees  lose  their  memory  and 
ambition.  In  addition  to  all  this  the  employer  sees 
no  good  in  paying  a  man  increased  wages  if  it  merely 
adds  to  his  dissipation,  his  days  off,  and  hastens  the 
time  of  his  inevitable  breakdown.  It  is  impossible  to 
conceive  of  continuous  good  work  without  good  char- 
acter and  proper  living.  The  good  workman's  heart 
is  in  his  work;  his  work  is  his  ideal.  Perfection  in  his 
work  is  to  him  a  controlling  purpose.  The  debauchee 
regards  his  work  as  a  means — not  an  end — to  provide 
him  money  whereby  to  gratify  other  propensities. 
The  dissipated  man  per  se  is  not  of  sound  mind,  for 
obvious  reasons ;  he  is  aware  that  his  dissipations  are 
hurtful  and  might  bring  about  his  ruin,  but  he  per- 
sists in  them ;  or,  it  must  be  that  his  intellectual  per- 
ceptions are  so  blunted  that  he  does  not  understand 
the  eflfect  on  him  of  his  bad  morals.  It  is  not  harmful 
to  the  wage-worker  as  a  class  to  require  good  char- 
acter as  a  condition  precedent  to  employment.  Such  a 
policy  by  employers  would  mean  the  uplifting  of  all 
workmen  by  establishing  a  system  of  rewards  for  the 
good  and  punishment  for  the  bad.  Society  is  organ- 
ized on  that  principle.  The  world,  with  its  entire 
fauna  and  flora,  is  presumed  to  be  a  survival  of  the 
fittest.  Any  rule  in  the  factory,  or  out  of  it,  that  puts 
the  unfit  on  a  level  with  the  fit,  seeking  to  counteract 
the  universal  law  of  nature,  must  inevitably  bring 
about  confusion,  if  not  disaster. 

189 


SEGREGATION    OF      THE    EFFICIENT     FROM      THE      NON- 
EFFICIENT. 

Employers  have  been,  and  are,  derelict  in  failing  to 
insist  upon  conditions  with  unions  which  will  enable 
them  to  classify  workmen  according  to  their  merits. 
But  it  is  unfortunately  a  fact  that  too  often  the  em- 
ployer is  an  accident  and  has  no  training  for  his  posi- 
tion other  than  that  which  he  acquired  in  the  same 
shop  which  he  controls.  But  even  with  employers  who 
are  model  in  every  respect  the  unions  lay  down  rules 
which  are  especially  designed  to  defeat  the  merit  sys- 
tem among  workmen.  This  is  because  the  non-meri- 
torious element  controls  the  unions  and  manipulates 
the  organization  so  as  to  take  care  of  the  inefficient 
workmen.  The  efficient  workmen,  not  needing  aid 
of  this  sort,  do  not  interfere.  My  own  idea  of  a 
system  in  this  regard  would  be  for  employers  to  es- 
tablish a  rating  for  men  who  work  for  them  and  pay 
them  accordingly.  Such  men  should  have  cards  issued 
to  them  certifying  as  to  their  status  in  the  factory 
and,  when  leaving,  should  have  their  cards  endorsed 
in  a  manner  to  show  the  cause  of  their  departure  from 
the  factory.  If  a  coherent  system  of  this  sort  could 
be  established  in  all  the  factories  of  a  given  industry, 
there  would  soon  be  a  distinctly  divisional  line  estab- 
lished between  workers  which  would  be  predicated 
on  the  merits  of  the  men.  I  have  had  much  ex- 
perience with  labor  matters  in  different  capacities  and 
am  not  writing  as  an  inspirational  theorist.  To  me  it 
seems  that  the  segregation  of  the  efficient  from  the 
non-efficient  and  mischievous  workmen  is  a  condition 

190 


which  will  do  much,  with  the  "open  shop,"  to  force 
the  unions  from  a  condition  of  antagonism  and  dicta 
tion  into  one  of  co-operation  with  the  employer. 

MERIT    UNIONS 


Merit  unions  should  be  promoted  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  better  conditions  and  fair  wages  by  rea- 
son of  the  merit  of  services  rendered,  instead  of  by 
fear  of  injuries  possible  to  be  inflicted  by  strikes  and 
boycotts.  Shops  closed  to  non-union  men  by  reason 
of  preference  for  members  of  merit  unions  will  be 
closed  without  violating  any  moral,  economic  or 
statute  law. 

No  person  can  afford  to  remain  ignorant  of  the 
methods  and  purposes  of  trades  unions,  least  of  all  the 
self-respecting  wage-earner.  To  him,  more  than  to 
anyone  else,  skill  to  do  good  work,  strength  to  per- 
form a  maximum  amount  of  work,  intelligence  and 
good  character,  entitling  him  to  the  confidence  and 
respect  of  his  associates  and  employers,  tending  to 
win  for  him  advancement,  are  the  vital  essentials  for 
success.  The  secret  soul  desire  of  every  person,  in 
whatever  position  he  may  be,  should  be  for  intelli- 
gence to  know  his  duty,  and  for  the  disposition  and 
ability  to  do  his  duty. 

THE   DUTY  OF  LIFE. 

The  duty  of  life  for  every  person  is :  To  make  of 
himself  the  best  of  which  he  is  capable. 

In  so  far  as  any  man  or  woman  fails  in  the  full  per- 
formance of  this  duty  they  arc  by  so  much  smaller, 

191 


less  capable,  less  good,  less  prosperous,  than  they 
might  be.  For  every  relation  of  life,  domestic,  politi- 
cal, religious,  social,  industrial,  commercial  and  finan- 
cial, this  statement  of  one's  duty  to  himself  is  a  per- 
fect solvent.  Any  custom,  habit,  association  that 
prevents  one's  proper  growth  is  a  direct  injury  to 
him,  and  for  that  reason  should  be  avoided.  On  the 
contrary,  every  custom,  habit,  association,  that  is  help- 
ful to  one's  proper  development  is  a  direct  benefit  to 
him  and  should  be  diligently  cultivated. 

Customs,  habits,  associations,  are  good  or  bad  as 
they  tend  to  make  clear  and  to  enforce  the  require- 
ments of  justice  to  oneself,  not  by  others,  but  by  him- 
self, or  to  obscure  or  evade  such  requirements. 

ONLY    THE    BEST    MEN  SHOULD    CONTROL. 

A  person  who,  through  failing  in  self-government, 
fails  to  make  of  himself  the  best  of  which  he  is  capa- 
ble cannot,  with  reason,  be  expected  to  be  the  best 
man  to  govern  others  in  any  capacity.  Such  men 
should  not  be  placed  in  responsible  positions  in  reli- 
gious, social,  political  or  industrial  government.  In 
every  relation  to  life  the  progress  of  humanity  toward 
the  realization  of  a  more  perfect  life  is  seriously  re- 
tarded by  government  by  the  unfit.  When  the  best 
men  fail  to  do  their  full  duty,  unfit  men  fill  responsible 
positions  and  corruption  and  inefficiency  are  the  result. 

This  is  the  cause  of  the  failure  of  popular  govern- 
ment whenever  it  shows  imperfections.  The  best  men 
do  not  interest  themselves  sufficiently  in  politics.  This 
gives  unfit  men  opportunity  to  make  a  business  of 
politics. 

192 


This  is  the  cause  of  the  disaster  met  with  by  many 
corporations.  Stockholders  do  not  attend  meetings 
or  take  sufficient  interest  in  the  pohtics  of  corporate 
management.  This  gives  unfit  men  opportunity  to 
adopt  and  carry  out  unsound  poHcies,  and  disaster  fol- 
lows. 

Commenting  upon  the  general  lack  of  interest  in 
stockholders'  meetings,  the  editor  of  the  Wall  Street 
Journal  says : 

"As  long  as  these  meetings  are  'purely  formal' 
there  is  no  hope  for  greater  betterment  in  corporation 
affairs.  You  can  bring  a  horse  to  water,  but  you 
cannot  make  him  drink.  You  can  devise  a  scheme  of 
laws  the  most  ingenious  in  character,  which  will  pro- 
vide for  the  proper  transmission  of  authority  from  its 
original  source,  but  what  are  you  to  do  if  those  in 
whom  the  original  authority  is  vested  decline  to  ex- 
ercise it  with  intelligence?" 

This  is  the  cause  of  the  unwise  leadership  which 
has  caused  trade  union  members  so  much  unnecessary 
suffering  and  enormous  losses.  The  best  men  do  not 
attend  the  union  meetings  and  take  earnest  interest  in 
trades  union  politics.  This  gives  unfit  men  opportu- 
nity to  adopt  and  carry  out  unwise  methods,  which 
have  been  the  cause  of  bringing  so  much  disgrace 
to  the  cause  of  trades  unionism.  But  two  instances 
need  be  cited  of  the  triumph  of  the  incapable  in  trades 
union  leadership: 

I.  When  through  the  inactivity  of  the  best  men 
Terence    \  .    rowdcrly    was    deposed    and    John    R. 

13  ^93 


Sovereign  was  elected  grand  master  workman  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor. 

2.  The  more  recent  instance  when  Mr.  Henry  White 
was  expelled   from  the  Garment  Workers'  Union. 

Commenting  upon  this  deplorable  conduct  of  the 
garment  workers  the  editor  of  the  Wall  Street  Journal 
says: 

"Union  labor  does  not  lack  material  for  the  wisest 
of  leadership.  Its  ranks  are  full  of  intelligent  and 
honest  men  who  have  every  desire  to  treat  others 
fairly,  and  who  are  mentally  equipped  to  lead  their 
unions  into  paths  of  reason  and  conservatism.  It  is 
seldom,  however,  that  men  of  this  kind  are  chosen  as 
leaders,  and  if  they  are  chosen  there  usually  comes  a 
time  when  they  are  treated  as  Mr.  Henry  White  has 
been  treated. 

"If  union  labor  is  to  continue  a  helpful  factor  in 
the  economic  and  industrial  life  of  this  country,  it  will 
have  to  choose  its  leaders  wisely.  The  great  body  of 
steady,  responsible  artisans  will  have  to  get  into  union 
politics  and  rescue  the  organization  from  the  unwise 
and  the  dishonest.  Union  politics  are  the  same  as 
other  politics.     The  same  principles  govern." 

THE    BEST   MEN    SHOULD    BE  ENCOURAGED    TO    ORGANIZE 
MERIT    UNIONS. 

Experience  teaches  that  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  best  men  among  every  class  of  wage-earners 
to  organize  merit  unions  for  their  class  and  thus  put 
themselves  in  direct  competition  with  unions  of  the 
incapable.     I'hcre   can  be  no   intelligent  question   re- 

194 


garding  the  outcome  of  such  a  competition.  In  a  true 
merit  union  every  influence  and  rule  will  tend  to  aid 
every  member  in  the  proper  performance  of  his  duty 
to  himself,  the  duty  of  making  of  and  for  himself  the 
best  of  which  he  is  capable.  Employers  can  do  them- 
selves no  better  service  than  to  aid  the  organization 
of  merit  unions  to  the  fullest  possible  extent  among 
their  employes. 


ENFORCEMENT    OF    LAW    THE    FIRST    RE- 
QUIREMENT. 


BY     GEORGE     WELSH     WEBER,     PUBLISHER     WEBER  S 
WEEKLY,   CHICAGO. 


No  matter  what  reforms  are  undertaken  by  trades 
unions  in  their  organizations,  no  matter  what  im- 
proved methods  employers  may  inaugurate  in  the 
manner  of  conducting  their  business  in  relation  to 
their  employes,  the  whole  labor  question  finally  must 
depend  on  the  enforcement  of  the  laws. 

Two  principal  questions  arise:  \\'hat  are  the  laA's? 
and,  Whose  duty  is  to  enforce  them? 

employers'  property  rights. 

First,  there  are  the  property  rights.  The  employer 
has  the  right  to  use  his  property  in  any  lawful  man- 
ner and  has  the  right  to  demand  and  expect  protec- 
tion in  such  use.  If  his  property  is  destroyed,  by 
reason  of  failure  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  to 
protect   it.   he  can    recover   damages  for  the   value   of 

105 


the  property  destroyed.  Or,  he  can  secure  an  injunc- 
tion forbidding  interference  by  strikers  with  his  prop- 
erty rights.  Included  in  "property  rights"  is  the  right 
of  contracting  with  others  and  having  them  perform 
their  part  of  the  contract,  as  in  the  case  of  employing 
non-union  workmen. 

employes'  property  rights. 

The  workman,  also,  has  property  rights.  Member- 
ship in  a  union  does  not  increase  nor  modify  these 
rights.  The  courts  hold  that  the  right  to  work  is 
the  right  to  contract  and  that,  therefore,  the  labor  of 
the  workman  is  property,  and  that  all  the  laws  which 
are  invoked  to  protect  tangible  property  may  be  in- 
voked to  protect  the  workman  in  the  exercise  of  his 
labor  property  rights.  To  secure  protection  in  these 
rights  it  is  necessary  to  apply  to  the  courts.  Gen- 
erally they  are  not  matters  which  public  officials  take 
cognizance  of  without  formal  complaint. 

ONE   LAW  for    union    AND    NON-UNION    MEN. 

Then,  there  are  the  criminal  laws  against  acts  of 
disorder.  Offenses  under  this  head  are  against  the 
public,  and  public  officials  are  presumed  to  detect, 
arrest  and  punish  such  offenders.  I  will  not  under- 
take to  enumerate  the  laws  and  offenses  which  are 
against  the  public  peace.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  any 
act  of  assault  on  the  person  or  property  of  another, 
when  committed  by  a  unionist,  is  subject  to  the  same 
punishment  that  the  same  act  would  invite  if  the 
offender  were  not  a  trades  unionist.  It  is  the  error 
of  trades    union    strikers  to    assume    that    the  union 

196 


gives  them  rights  which  tjie  non-union  man  does  not 
possess.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  co-operation  of 
union  leaders  to  boycott  or  injure  others  or  the  prop- 
erty of  others  lays  the  participants  liable  to  the  charge 
of  conspiracy,  which  a  single  individual  doing  the 
same  act  would  not  be  chargeable  with.  In  addition, 
the  acts  of  a  number  of  persons  may  be  an  offense 
against  the  law  if  the  persons  act  in  conspiracy.  For 
example,  it  would  be  unlawful  conspiracy  for,  say,  a 
hundred  men,  to  agree  among  themselves  that  they 
would  stand  in  front  of  a  certain  factory  and  obstruct 
the  street.  But  if  the  same  men  stood  at  the  same 
place  in  exactly  the  same  manner,  without  an  under- 
standing, it  would  not  be  conspiracy,  and  no  punish- 
ment could  be  inflicted  upon  them,  unless  they  were 
disorderly,  and  then  the  punishment  would  have  to  be 
imposed  on  each  individual,  as  an  individual,  the 
same  as  if  no  other  person  had  been  at  the  place.  I 
am  stating  this  case  broadly.  I  am  aware  that  there 
are  many  phases  to  conspiracy  and  that  in  some  cases 
the  mere  co-operation  and  simultaneous  action  of  a 
crowd  enables  the  courts  to  deal  with  them  as  con- 
spirators. Mobs,  and  persons  congregating  in  mobs, 
may  be  punished.  However,  I  am  merely  endeavor- 
ing to  point  out  that  unions  do  not  give  the  right  to 
do  things  which  the  individual  workman  does  not 
have  the  right  to  do.  For  example,  a  man  has  no 
right  to  persistently  wait  for  and  talk  to  another  as 
he  leaves  his  place  of  business.  A  book  agent  who 
would  wait  for  and  harass  a  workman  to  buy  a  book, 
even  if  the  book  were  a  good  one  and  one  the  work- 

197 


man  ought  to  have,  could  be  punished  for  disorderly 
conduct  at  least.  No  more  has  a  striker  the  right  to 
pester  a  non-union  workman  about  joining  the  union, 
or  on  any  other  matter. 

POLICE  DUTY  TO  ENFORCE  LAW. 

The  next  question  is :  Whose  duty  is  it  to  en- 
force the  laws?  It  is  the  duty  of  the  police  in  the 
cities  where  most  strike  disorders  occur  to  patrol  the 
streets  and  discover  offenders  and  arrest  them.  They 
are  not  expected  to  enter  upon  private  grounds  and 
endeavor  to  maintain  order  unless  they  have  reason  to 
believe  that  a  crime  is  being  committed.  But  I  will 
not  go  into  this  phase  of  the  subject,  because  of  its 
complexity. 

DUTY   OF    PUBLIC    OFFICERS  TO   ENFORCE    THE    LAW. 

The  sixth  plank  of  Public  Policy's  labor  platform 
is  as  follows: 

"The  prompt,  impartial  and  complete  enforcement 
of  all  laws  for  the  protection  of  the  right  of  every 
person  to  dispose  of  his  power  to  labor  and  to  operate 
his  business  in  the  way  approved  by  his  own  judg- 
ment, subject  only  to  the  police  powers  of  the  state,  is 
imperatively  necessary  for  the  promotion  of  the  gen- 
eral welfare." 

This  amounts  to  saying  that  the  police  shall  apply 
the  same  rules  in  dealing  with  strike  law  breakers 
that  they  are  presumed  to  apply  to  common  criminals. 
It  also  amounts  to  saying  that,  for  example,  the  as- 
sault of  a  strike  picket  on  a  non-union  driver,  who 
is  driving  a  load  of  meat,  or  other  article,  is  exactly 

198 


the  same  as  the  act  of  a  common  hold-up  man,  or 
highwayman.    The  poUce  now  do  nothing  of  the  sort. 
They  do  not  even  attempt  to  arrest  men  who  commit 
all   the  acts   of   highwaymen   when   such  acts   are  in 
behalf  of  a  strike.     The  police  act  on  the  theory  that 
it  IS  their  duty  to  keep  the  peace  merely,  and  that  the 
relation  of  a  mob  of  strikers  trying  to  stop   a   non- 
union driver  is  the  same  as  in  the  case  of  two  collid- 
ing crowds  on  State  street  having  rights  to  the  streets. 
This  attitude  of  neutrality  of  the  police  is  most  repre- 
hensible, because  it  leads  strikers  to  suppose  that  they 
are  within  their  rights.     But  the  police  are  not  wholly 
to  blame.    The  mayor,  who  is  directly  over  them,  is 
really  responsible  for  the  course  which  they  pursue. 
The  mayor  is  morally  responsible  for  any  long-con- 
tinued condition  of  disorder,  such  as  prevailed  during 
the  packing  house  strike.     He  cannot  justly  set  up  the 
plea  that  his  police  force  was  inadequate  to  preserve 
order.     The   law   peremptorily  makes   it  his   duty  to 
call  on  the  governor   when  he  finds   that  he   cannot 
preserve  order,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  governor, 
under  such  circumstances,  to  call  out  the  militia  and 
have  it  co-operate  with  the  mayor  in  the  preservation 
of  order.     The  Illinois  law  provides  that,  in  addition 
to   the   mayor,   the   county   judge,   the   sheriff   or   the 
coroner  may  call  on  the  governor  for  the  militia,  and 
that  it  shall  be  sent.     Under  such  circumstances  the 
mayor    may    be    wholly    ignored.      Or    the    governor 
may,  on  his  own  motion,  without  being  called  on  by 
anyone,  send  the  militia  to  any  place  in  the  state,  to 
enforce  the  laws  and  preserve  order. 

199 


LAW-BREAKING   STRIKERS    SHOULD   BE    INDICTED. 

My  belief  is  that  the  arrest  and  prosecution  of 
strike  offenders  is  the  best  way  to  stop  the  strike  evil. 
The  co-operation  of  grand  juries  and  states'  attorneys 
is  necessary  to  fully  accomplish  this.  I  am  aware 
that  when  strike  law  breakers  are  rightfully  indicted 
they  resort  to  all  sorts  of  illegal  methods  to  avoid 
conviction  and  often  they  escape.  But  this  is  a  pun- 
ishment of  itself.  Therefore,  the  complaint  of  the 
states'  attorneys  that  you  "cannot  convict"  should 
not  cut  any  figure.  States'  attorneys  are  generally 
paid  by  the  number  of  convictions  they  secure  and  are 
reluctant  to  undertake  cases  in  which  there  is  a  pros- 
pect that  they  may  not  accomplish  easy  convictions. 
Besides,  states'  attorneys,  like  other  officials,  are  dis- 
posed to  cater    to  the  "labor  vote." 

The  common  error  in  the  enforcement  of  the  laws 
in  strike  disputes  is  that  the  issue  is  between  the 
strikers  and  their  employers.  This  is  not  generally 
the  fact.  But,  even  if  it  happen  to  be  so  as  to  the 
main  contention  of  the  strikers,  the  minute  the  strik- 
ers begin  to  violate  property  rights  and  engage  in  acts 
of  disorder,  then  the  strike  is  against  the  general  pub- 
lic, and  the  harm  which  is  done  is  against  society, 
and  not  confined  to  the  non-union  workman  or  his 
employer.  The  advantages  of  a  free  state  are  shame- 
fully mitigated  by  a  failure  to  enforce  all  the  laws  on 
all  alike. 


200 


PEACEABLE   SETTLEMENTS   OF   STRIKERS' 

DEMANDS. 


BY  GEORGE  WELSH  WEBER,  PUBLISHER  WEBER's  WEEKLY, 

CHICAGO. 


Every  strike  is  a  demonstration  of  the  need  for  a 
method  of  settlement  of  contentions  between  work- 
men and  their  employers  which  will  be  sane  and 
peaceable.  Every  loss  through  a  strike  discloses  the 
economic  necessity  for  a  reasonable  method  of  strike 
settlement. 

IMPRACTICABLE   FEATURES   OF   ARBITRATION. 

The  general  idea  of  arbitration  has   seen  its  best 
days.     Compulsory  arbitration  was  never  practicable. 
For    the    most    part    arbitration    is    compromise    and 
amounts  to  ^'splitting  the  difference"  that  exists  be- 
tween the  contending  forces  in  the  dispute.    It  amounts 
to  proposing  that  the  man  who  is  right  must  give  up 
some  part  of  his  rights  in  order  to  appease  the  man 
who  is  wrong.     Suppose  a  man  proposes  to  put  non- 
union men  in  his  factory.    The  unionists  object.     The 
advocates  of  arbitration  say,  let  us  arbitrate!     Arbi- 
trate what?    Why,  the  right  of  the  employer  to  use  his 
property  in  his  own  way  in  a  lawful  manner;  to  throw 
into  the  scale  of  arbitration  the  right  of  contract,  which 
is  one  of  the  express  constitutional  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual, against  nothing.     Arbitration,  in  such  a  case, 
would  mean  that  the  employer  would  probably  have 
to  accept  a  modification  of  his  constitutional  right  of 

20I 


contract — a  reduction  of  his  privilege  to  use  his  prop- 
erty in  any  lawful  manner. 

COMPULSORY  ARBITRATION   ABSURD. 

Compulsory  arbitration  is  an  absurdity.  The  prop- 
osition amounts  to  saying  that  the  courts  and  court  de- 
cisions establishing  property  rights  should  be  torn 
down  and  a  new  system  of  determining  rights  estab- 
lished— a  system  in  which  rights  shall  be  set  aside  for 
momentary  expediency,  and  set  aside  in  proportion  to 
the  unreasonableness  and  strenuousness  of  the  demand 
of  persons  who  are  not  willing  to  surrender  anything, 
whose  contract  is  worthless,  and  who  could  not  be 
forced  to  comply  with  the  result  of  the  arbitration 
which  might  be  held  and  to  which  they  might  be  a 
party. 

DISPUTES    MAY   BE   SETTLED   BY    COURTS   OF   RECORD. 

What  I  have  said  relates  to  arbitration  in  which  one 
or  the  other  party  is  forced,  against  his  will,  by  public 
sentiment,  newspaper  intimidation,  or  otherwise.  There 
is  no  objection  to  two  parties  to  a  labor  quarrel  submit- 
ting a  question  on  which  they  disagree  to  a  third  party. 
My  own  belief  is  that  laws  might  be  enacted  which 
would  enable  the  taking  of  such  cases  to  judges  of 
courts  of  record  and  requiring  that  judges  should  hear 
them  instanter,  if  necessary.  The  hearing  of  all  cases 
of  this  sort  should  be  subject  to  the  same 
rules  of  court  procedure  as  prevail  in  ordinary  cases. 
The  advantage  of  such  a  method  would  be  that  a  court 
could,  to  some  extent,  enforce  a  decree  which  it  mieht 
find  in  such  a  case.    At  the  same  time  it  could  refuse 

202 


to  hear  a  case  in  which  the  sacrifice  of  constitutional 
rights  might  be  proposed.  For  example,  a  court  could 
throw  out  a  proposition  to  decide  upon  a  question  as 
to  whether  or  not  a  concern  should  operate  a  "closed 
shop,"  because  such  a  requirement  would  be  contrary 
to  the  rights  of  third  parties — workmen  who  do  not 
belong  to  trades  unions. 

There  is  a  principle  of  law  in  this  connection  which 
it  is  worth  while  to  consider:     Suppose  two  men  are 
contending  about  the  ownership  of  a  piece  of  personal 
property  and  disturbing  the  general  public.    They  can 
be  brought  into  court  and  the  right  to  the  property  de- 
termined.   There  is  also  a  practice  in  law  whereby  the 
rate  of  wages  may  be  determined.    Suppose  for  exam- 
ple that  the  striking  workmen  at  the  stock  yards  had 
worked,  but  had  not  had  a  rate  of  pay  agreed  on  be- 
tween  them   and   their   employers;    suppose,    further, 
that  the  end  of  the  year  came  around  and  the  workmen 
demanded  a  final  settlement  on  a  certain  basis.     The 
employers  would  not  agree  to  the  rate  demanded  ana 
the  workmen  sue.    In  such  a  case  the  court  would  un- 
dertake to  determine  what  would  be  a  reasonable  rate 
of  pay  for  the  workmen.     If  the  same  rule  were  to  be 
made  to  apply  in  advance  in  relation  to  a  wage  rate  it 
might  operate  in  some  degree  to  settle  rates  in  advance. 
But,  at  the  very  best,  it  would  encounter  many  difti- 
culties,  for  no  court  could  compel  the  running  of  a  fac- 
tory or  the  employment  of  any  set  of  men  by  an  em- 
ployer, even  if  the  rate  of  wages  which  those  particu- 
lar men  ought  to  bo  paid  were  fully  and  intelligently 
determined. 

203 


LABOR  DISPUTES  OUGHT  TO  BE  SETTLED  AT  HOME. 

So  that,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  wage  disputes  settles  back  to  an  intelligent  deal- 
ing with  it  by  the  employer  and  employe.  They  are 
the  persons  who,  above  all  others,  are  concerned  in 
having  a  fair  adjustment  of  the  questions  at  issue. 
Here  is  what  Public  Policy's  Platform  on  Labor  Prob- 
lems says  on  this  point : 

"7.  Peaceable  settlement  of  disputes  between  em- 
ployers and  employes  through  self-respecting  confer- 
ences between  the  parties  directly  interested,  either 
individually  or  through  authorized  and  responsible 
representatives,  and  on  a  basis  of  mutual  recogni- 
tion of  the  lawful  status  of  each,  is  essential  to  in- 
dustrial stability  and  hence  to  the  best  welfare  of 
the  community." 

Adjustments  of  trades  disputes,  like  family  quarrels, 
ought  to  be  made  at  home.  The  self-respecting  em- 
ployer will,  as  a  rule,  yield  something  rather  than  go 
into  a  strike.  The  union  that  is  well  directed  by  com- 
petent leaders  cannot  afford  to  embark  on  a  strike  in 
which  it  is  not  unmistakably  right.  And  it  can  better 
afford  to  concede  doubtful  points  than  to  resort  to  a 
test  of  strength.  It  is  unfortunate  that  many  strikes 
are  due  rather  to  the  offensive  mannerisms  of  the  nego- 
tiants than  to  the  actual  merits  of  the  conten- 
tions. 


204 


NATIONAL  SHOP  REGULATIONS. 


In  this  issue  Mr.  George  Welsh  Weber  discusses  the 
labor  proposition,  ''A  National  Shop  Regulation  Sys- 
tem Is  Necessary."     We  believe  there  is  much  in  this 
article  that  all  intelligent  and  thoughtful  employers  and 
employes  will  find  profitable  reading.     The  questions 
raised  in  this  article  are  the  direct  result  of  the  im- 
provements made   during  the  past  fifty  years  in  the 
means  for  disseminating  information  and  the  exchange 
of  commodities.     Competition   between   producers  of 
similar  commodities,   wherever   they   may   be  located 
throughout  the  Union,  is  now  more  direct  and  effective 
than  it  was  fifty  years  ago  between  producers  within 
the  same  state.    This  condition  creates  a  necessity  for 
uniform  shop  regulations  throughout  the  entire  field. 
The  same  cause,  improved  facilities  for  the  exchange 
of   information   and   commodities,   is    working    for   a 
world-wide  application  of  shop  regulations  as  a  means 
of    eliminating    some   of    the    factors    of    uncertainty 
from  the  problem  of  competition.     Here  is  another 
indication  that  the  development  of  industry  is  tending 
to  cause  men  to  deal  with  each  other,  not  as  members 
of  a  family,  a  state,  a  nation,  nor  even  as  members 
of  a  race,  but  rather  as  members  of  the  world  unit, 
the  brotherhood  of  mankind  which  has  for  ages  been 
the  dream  of  poets,  philosophers  and  prophets. 

World  peace  conferences  are  seeking  to  place  hm- 
itations  upon  the  practice  of  war  with  a  view  to  its 
final  elimination  from  the  aft*airs  of  governments,  thus 
L^nving  practical  effect  to  the  words  of  the  poet  who 


20: 


wrote:  ''War  is  a  game  which,  if  their  subjects  were 
wise,  kings  would  not  play  at.'^  This  dream  of  political 
peace  will  be  made  a  realized  fact  by  the  insistent  de- 
mands of  international  commerce.  Here  again  the 
voice  of  humanity  will  be  heard  calling  for  world  in- 
dustrial conferences  as  a  means  of  placing  limitations 
upon  immoral  and  cruel  practices  of  greedy  producers. 
Even  in  the  suggestion  of  such  a  proposal  there  is  evi- 
dence of  a  world-wide  movement  towards  a  better  day 
for  employers  and  employes. 

But  there  is  another  lesson  in  this  discussion.  It  is 
for  employes.  The  evils  sought  to  be  eliminated  from 
shop  conditions  exist  because  it  is  thought  they  aid 
to  cheapen  production.  A  demonstration  that  they  do 
not  cheapen  production  will  be  far  more  fatal  to  their 
existence  than  any  legal  enactment,  however  well  it 
may  be  enforced.  Here  is  where  intelligent  employes 
can  give  effective  application  to  their  self-interest  and 
their  patriotism.  Their  self-interest  will  be  directly 
promoted  by  so  doing  their  work  under  shop  regula- 
tions designed  to  eliminate  the  evils  of  which  they 
complain  as  to  make  it  certain  that  their  employer  shall 
suffer  no  disadvantage  by  reason  of  them,  in  competti- 
tion  with  his  more  greedy  and  less  humane  rivals. 
Loyalty  to  fair  employers  is  not  only  the  duty  of  em- 
ployes, it  is  the  means  by  which  they  can  secure  and 
enjoy  the  best  attainable  standard  of  living  for  them- 
selves. 

The  patriotism  of  American  employes  can  have  no 
better  practical  application  than  in  demonstrating  to 
the   world  that  the   energy,   intelligence   and   skill  of 

206 


American  workmen,  operating  machinery  and  work- 
ing together  under  ideal  shop  regulations,  have  noth- 
ing to  fear  from  the  competition  of  those  working 
under  less  humane  conditions.  Upon  the  conduct  of 
workmen,  far  more  than  upon  the  enforcement  of  law, 
the  adoption  of  humane  shop  conditions  depends. 
When  workmen  show  proper  appreciation  of  the 
efforts  made  by  their  employers  to  make  the  conditions 
of  employment  safe,  sanitary  and  moral,  they  will  do 
far  more  than  the  law  can  do  to  secure  the  universal 
adoption  of  such  conditions.  To  speed  the  establish- 
ment of  the  better  conditions  desired  there  must  be 
cordial  co-operation  between  employers,  employes  and 
the  law.  This  will  inaugurate  and  promote  the  upward 
movement  which  is  so  devoutly  desired  by  all  who 
wish  the  good  of  mankind. 


A  NATIONAL  SHOP  REGULATION   SYSTEM 
IS  NECESSARY. 


BY       GEORGE       WELSH       WEBER^       PUBLISHER       WEBER's 
WEEKLY.   CHICAGO. 


"  Public  Policy's  Platform  on  Labor  Problems  de- 
clares that :  "Uniformity  in  state  legislation  regulat- 
ing workshop  conditions,  hours  of  employment,  etc.. 
to  the  end  that  employment  in  no  state  shall  be  placed 
at  a  disadvantage  in  competition  with  employment  iti 
any  other  state,  by  reason  of  dissimilar  standards  and 
regulations,  is  fundamentally  necessary  for  the  pro- 
motif^n  of  national  prospcritv.     This  proposition  must 

207 


also  be  given  a  world-wide  application.  In  this  age 
of  steam  and  electricity  international  competitive  con- 
ditions must  be  considered  whenever  industrial  meas- 
ures are  proposed  for  enactment." 

INEQUALITIES    IN    STATE    REGULATION. 

It  is  necessary,  first,  to  understand  existing  condi- 
tions : 

Under  the  present  system  each  state  has  a  different 
system  of  laws  regulating  workshops,  child  labor, 
hygienic  conditions,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  In  the 
several  states  these  laws  are  enforced  with  varying 
degrees  of  laxity  or  rigidity.  One  administration  will 
make  capital  out  of  enforcing  them ;  another  will  util- 
ize the  non-enforcement  of  them  in  all,  or  in  at  least 
some,  respects  to  win  the  favor  of  some  class  or  other. 
The  effect  is  an  uneven  enforcement  in  each  state. 

STATE-AGAINST-STATE    SYSTEM. 

There  is  also  a  total  lack  of  uniformity  between  the 
laws  of  the  different  states.  The  effect  of  this  is  that 
while  an  industry  is  compelled  to  contend  with  vary- 
ing conditions  in  the  state  in  which  it  is  located,  it  is 
still  more  annoyed  by  the  inharmonious  conditions 
which  it  has  to  compete  against  in  other  states.  It  is 
manifest  that  the  state  which  has  the  most  "liberal" 
laws  in  its  system  of  workshop  regulation  will  enable 
its  manufactories  to  produce  at  the  lowest  price  cost. 
Therefore,  every  restriction  that  is  placed  upon  in- 
dustrial concerns,  which  tends  to  reduce  product  or 
increase  unproductive  investment,  operates  to  increase 
cost  and  reduce  the  capability  of  the  state  to  compete 

208 


with  other  states  which  have  less  rigid  laws.  Humani- 
tarianism,  as  well  as  regard  for  the  physical  well-being 
of  the  individual  citizenship  of  the  country,  demand 
that  certain  shop  regulations  be  enforced.  It  is  not 
worth  while  to  discuss  these  regulations  in  this  con- 
nection at  this  time.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  they 
are  undeniably  needed,  and  the  more  intelligent  they 
are,  and  the  firmer  their  enforcement,  the  better  for 
all  the  people.  But,  with  the  creation  and  enforcement 
of  these  regulations  by  state  governments  come  diffi- 
culties. As  I  have  shown,  each  state  must  compete 
with  every  other  state.  The  result  is  that  any  state 
which  takes  a  step  forward  in  the  direction  of  requir- 
ing proper  shop  regulations  increases  the  difficulties 
of  its  manufacturers  to  compete  with  similar  manu- 
facturers located  in  states  where  the  regulations  are 
less  drastic.  The  effect  is  that  there  is  created  an  eco- 
nomic issue  as  between  states — an  issue  which  should 
never  exist.  It  is  possible  that,  at  some  times,  domi- 
nant parties  in  some  states  endeavor  to  get  the  advan- 
tage of  other  states  by  modifying  the  severity  of  the 
shop  regulation  laws,  so  as  to  give  its  employers  an 
advantage.  At  any  rate,  the  ultimate  effect  of  the 
present  state-against-state  system  is  to  induce  all  the 
states  to  reduce  their  standard  of  shop  regulation  to 
the  standard  of  that  state  which  has  the  greatest  dis- 
regard for  the  welfare  of  its  working  classes.  There 
is  thus  a  competition  towards  a  lower  standard  of 
workshop  regulation — a  tendency  toward  a  great  less 
and  less  regard  for  the  bodily  welfare  of  the  working 
classes.     All   this   in   time   will   tell,    fatally,   upon   the 

14  209 


manhood  and  womanhood  of  the  nation,  and  be  with- 
out any  advantage,  except  momentarily,  to  the  em- 
ployer who  obtains  profit  from  unrestrained  shop  con- 
ditions. 

How  to  correct  this  downward  tendency  and  in- 
duce a  movement  in  the  other  direction  is  a  grave 
problem.  That  the  need  is  manifest  nobody  disputes. 
None  but  the  most  avaricious  employer  will  object  to 
wholesome  regulations  for  purposes  of  hygiene  and 
sanitation. 

THE    REMEDY    NATIONAL    REGULATION. 

In  seeking  for  cures  for  conditions  such  as  I  have 
alluded  to  it  is  necessary,  first,  to  locate  the  cause. 
The  cause  of  imperfect  shop  regulation  is  in  the  fact 
that  regulation  is  under  state  control.  This  amounts  to 
saying  that  there  are  at  least  two  potential  forces  at 
work  to  defeat  the  proper  regulation  of  shops ;  one  of 
these  is  the  necessity  of  the  state,  as  a  unit,  not  to  put 
itself  at  too  great  a  disadvantage  with  other  states; 
the  second  is  that  a  large  industry  in  a  state  has  pro- 
portionately greater  influence  in  the  administration 
of  state  affairs  than  it  would  have  in  national  affairs. 
Consider  the  coal  interests  in  relation  to  the  state  of 
Pennsylvania,  or  the  meat-product  interests  in  rela- 
tion to  Illinois.  With  nationalized  control  these  indus- 
tries would  be  much  less  able  to  control  or  influence 
shop  regulation  legislation  in  their  own  interests.  This 
brings  us  to  the  proposition  of  federal  control  of 
shop  regulations.  But,  before  considering  federal 
control  of  shops  from  the  question  of  constitutionality 
and  that  sort  of  thing,  I  wish  to  ask  one  question : 

210 


What  would  the  whisky  manufacturing  business  be  if 
the  federal  revenue  laws  were  left  to  state  govern- 
ments and  their  agents,  city  governments,  to  enforce? 
The  suggestion  is  simply  startling.  I  have  not,  in  this 
article,  the  space  to  discuss  closely  the  many  deci- 
sions which  lean  in  the  direction  of  affirming  the  right 
of  the  general  government  to  take  jurisdiction  of  such 
matters  as  shop  regulations.  Control  is  a  matter  of 
police  power,  and,  broadly,  the  police  power  of  the 
federal  government  in  theory  extends  over  and  covers 
all  those  matters  which  are  incident  to  and  interfere 
with  commerce  between  the  several  states.  The  fact 
that  such  authority  has  not  been  exercised  by  the  fed- 
ral  government  in  the  past  is  not  significant.  Fifty 
years  ago  the  state  itself  did  not  assume  police  juris- 
diction over  one-tenth  of  what  it  now  undisputedly 
controls.  The  correct  theory  of  government  is  that 
the  government  has  within  its  resources  a  remedy  for 
any  evil,  which,  although  unknown  at  the  creation  of 
the  government,  in  future  presents  itself.  Tims,  shop 
regulation  was  not  required  when  the  states  were 
erected.  Industry  increased,  and  the  state,  to  protect 
its  citizens,  undertook  to  control  the  workshop.  An- 
other changing  of  conditions  broadened  the  character 
of  the  workshop  regulation  requirement  and  made  it 
national.  The  state-against-state  condition  made  an 
issue  which  is  distinctively  national,  and  it  is  not  only 
fair,  but  necessary,  to  accept  that  the  nationalizing 
of  the  workshop  condition  brings  it  within  the  pur- 
view of  the  federal  government.  T  am  aware  that 
hairsj)litting   lawyers   will    find   this   and   that    decision 

2T  I 


limiting  the  rights  of  the  government  and  defining 
those  of  the  states.  But  this  is  not  a  case  for  prece- 
dents. It  is  a  case  for  precedent-making.  The  broad- 
est lawyer  is  the  lawyer  who  is  ready  to  make  new 
precedents  out  of  the  fundamental  theories  upon 
which  the  older  precedents  were  established. 

WHERE   TO   BEGIN. 

In  my  opinion  there  is  no  other  way  to  secure  uni- 
form shop  regulations,  such  as  are  outlined  in  Pub- 
lic Policy's  platform,  than  by  national  legislation.  It 
would  be  beyond  the  wildest  stretch  of  imagination 
to  suppose  that  all  the  states  could  be  got  to  enact  the 
same  law  and  enforce  it  with  equal  thoroughness.  To 
bring  about  national  control  would  not  require  that 
the  entire  jurisdiction  be  taken  over  at  once.  There 
are  features  of  the  shop  regulation  which  might  be 
taken  up  by  the  general  government  first.  Among 
these  is  the  employment  of  growing  children,  espe- 
cially females,  at  manual  labor.  These  are  abuses 
which  are  carried  on  in  relation  to  such  employment 
and  are  of  such  broadly  national  character  that  the 
justification  of  national  interference  is  manifest. 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  CHILDREN. 


The  subject  of  Mr.  Weber's  article  in  this  issue  is 
fundamental  to  the  welfare  of  the  human  race,  to  the 
success  of  democratic  government,  to  the  prevention 
of  the  overpopulation  of  hell.  Race  suicide  is  not 
caused  by  a  restriction  of  numbers,  but  by  dwarfed 
intellects,     imperfectly     developed     bodies,     defective 

212 


characters.      The    porfcctioii   of   the   iiuhvichial   is   the 
supreme  purpose  of  life. 

The  people  have  more  to  Icarii  on  the  subject  of 
education  than  any  other.  And  their  first  lesson  must 
be  how  to  discriminate  between  the  necessary  and 
the  useless.  The  chief  end  of  the  education  of  a  child 
should  be  to  teach  him  how  to  study,  to  form  in  him 
a  correct  conception  of  the  value  of  knowing  how  to 
do  useful  things,  and  a  pride  in  doing  them  well,  and, 
above  all,  to  cause  him  to  understand  that  the  years 
of  school  life  can  open  to  him  only  the  first  chapter 
of  the  book  of  life ;  that  he  is  of  necessity  always  at 
school  and  the  welfare  of  his  life  in  its  entirety  is  de- 
pendent upon  what  he  learns  and  the  use  he  makes  of 
his  knowledge.  That  educator  is  most  successful  who 
succeeds  in  teaching  a  child  how  to  study,  how  to 
think,  and  arouses  in  him  a  desire  to  study.  When  a 
child  has  been  given  this  start  ho  will  be  sure*  to  find 
the  lines  of  study  best  suited  to  his  natural  mental 
capacity,  and  to  pursue  his  studies  through  all  his  life. 
The  satisfaction  of  acquiring  information  will  become 
to  him  as  great  as  the  satisfaction  of  acquiring  wealth. 
He  will  be  among  those  Avho  live  balanced  lives,  who 
do  not  permit  money-making  to  absorb  all  their  time 
and  energies,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  acquiring  of  those 
accomplishments  that  tend  to  the  perfection  of  human 
life.  While  a  child  is  immature,  has  not  reached  th? 
age  of  discretion,  it  is  his  right  t<:)  be  prt^perly  gov- 
erned, properly  directed,  properly  taught.  "As  the 
twig  is  bent,  so  is  the  tree  inclined."  When  those  re- 
sponsible  for  the  birth  of  chiUlrcn  deprive  their  chil- 

213 


dren  of  their  rights  in  these  respects  they  are  guilty 
of  maiming  the  race.  It  is  better  to  have  no  race 
than  a  race  of  mental,  moral  and  physical  cripples. 
When  parents  fail  to  do  their  duty  in  these  respects 
society  should  become  the  guardian  of  the  child  and 
perform  it  for  them.  The  law  and  its  proper  admin- 
istration should  see  to  it  that  every  child  has  an  equal 
opportunity  to  acquire  that  kind  of  education  that  will 
best  fit  it  to  become  a  self-supporting,  self-respecting 
citizen.  Make  it  certain  that  all  children  shall  have 
equal  opportunities  in  these  respects,  and  in  the  course 
of  time  there  will  be  in  these  United  States  a  race  of 
men  and  women  capable  of  self-government.  Men 
and  wom.en  who  govern  themselves  properly,  who  per- 
form their  duties  to  themselves  intelligently,  will  so 
perform  their  civic  duties.  They  will  be  able  to  erect 
a  state  in  which  there  will  be  neither  corruption  nor 
incapacity — a  state  created  and  directed  by  men  who 
stand  for  man  from  the  conception  of  the  child  to  his 
graduation  into  that  larger  life  for  which  this  life  is 
a  preparatory  school.  Children  have  rights.  The  peo- 
ple must  be  taught  how  to  respect  them. 


CHILDREN  SHOULD  NOT  BE  CONFINED  IN 
WORKSHOPS. 


BY       GEORGE       WELSH       WEBER,       PUBLISHER       WEBER  S 
WEEKLY,     CHICAGO. 


The  ninth  plank  of  Public  Policy's  platform  on  labor 
problems  is  as  follows : 
"In  the  interests  of  the  physical  development  of  the 

2x4 


race,  and  of  public  education,  childhood  must  be  pro- 
tected and  the  employment  of  children  in  commerce 
and  manufactures  should  be  carefully  restricted ;  all 
night  work  for  children  and  the  employment  of  chil- 
dren who  cannot  read  and  write  in  the  English  lan- 
guage should  be  prohibited/' 

A   CRIME  AGAINST   POSTERITY. 

I  am  firmly  convinced  that  female  children  should 
not  be  employed  at  strenuous,  unremitting  labor  at 
all ;  that  is  to  say,  compelled  to  work  during  the  form- 
ative period  of  the  body.  Protracted  exhaustion  of 
the  body  means,  more  or  less,  the  retardation  and 
perhaps  imperfect  development  of  the  various  bodily 
organs.  The  concentric  rings  of  a  cross-section  of  a 
tree  show  the  depressing  and  healthful  seasons  that 
have  occurred  in  the  life  of  the  tree.  If  it  were  possi- 
ble to  analyze  the  human  body  the  same  as  the  boll 
of  the  tree,  it  would  be  found  that  in  the  body  was  a 
complete  record  of  the  unwholesome  and  wholesome 
periods  to  which  the  person  had  been  subjected  during 
its  formation.  This  means  that  the  future  mother  is 
being  dwarfed  and  distorted,  and  the  generation  that 
are  wrapped,  unbegotten,  in  her  being,  are  being 
robbed,  in  advance,  of  their  rightful  inheritance  of 
full  physical  manhood  or  womanhood.  This  is  the 
sort  of  "race  suicide"  which  modern  industrialism  is 
forcing  hard  and  fast  upon  humanity.  It  is  the  com- 
mon law,  I  believe,  that  a  woman  bearing  an  unborn 
child,  cannot  be  confined  in  jail,  the  theory  being  that 
the  child  is  a  person.     In  Giina  the  age  of  a  child 

215 


dates  from  the  time  of  conception  instead  of  the  time 
of  birth.  The  same  aegis  of  protection  that  is  thrown 
around  the  unborn  child  should  be  thrown  about  the 
child  that  is  unbegotten,  but  which  is  likely  to  be 
begotten. 

FEMALE  CHILDREN  SHOULD   HAVE  SPECIAL  PROTECTION. 

By  this  I  do  not  mean  to  convey  that  female  chil- 
dren should  not  work.  They  ought  to  work.  They 
should  be  taught  to  work,  but  they  should  not  be  com- 
pelled to  work  under  pressure  to  the  point  of  physical 
exhaustion.  And  it  is  not  always  physical  work 
which  is  most  harmful  to  the  growing  female  child. 
Too  intense  study,  education  beyond  mental  capacity, 
are  as  harmful,  if  not  more  harmful,  than  physical 
exertion  carried  to  excess.  The  schools  turn  out  an- 
nually a  grist  of  sallow,  undersized,  astigmatic  girls, 
who  are  unfitted  to  be  women  and  who  are  incapable 
of  being  men.  A  law,  uniform  throughout  the  nation, 
should  protect  female  children  upon  an  entirely  differ- 
ent theory  than  that  upon  which  the  protection  of  male 
children  is  formulated. 

PROPER  EDUCATION  OF  BOYS. 

With  boys  the  proposition  is  altogether  different. 
No  boy  should  be  employed  during  his  formative  pe- 
riod at  any  work  which  will  retard  or  distort  his  physi- 
cal development.  But  the  boy  is  essentially  different 
from  the  girl.  The  first  lesson  he  needs  to  learn 
is  to  subordinate  the  natural  man — the  wild  animal — 
that  is  in  him.  He  must  be  tamed.  The  first  and  most 
important  requirement  in  the  teaching  of  a  boy  is  the 
recognition  of  properly  constituted  authority  and  the 

216 


habit  of  doing-  something — anything — and  doing-  it  in 
a  thorough  manner.  When  a  boy  I  saw  two  men 
quarrel  and  fight  because  of  a  dispute  as  to  which  was 
the  best  shoveler.  If  a  boy  be  a  shoveler  he  must  be 
taught  to  excel — to  concentrate  his  best  energies — in 
shoveling.  Perhaps  he  may  shovel  his  way  out  of 
shoveling.  I  am  not  impressed  with  the  demand  for 
higher,  and  higher,  education  of  everybody.  It  is  to 
inflict  misfortune  to  overteach,  overtrain,  overwork 
any  youth.  To  do  so  simply  teaches  the  boy  to  be  dis- 
contented with  his  environment  and  personal  capabil- 
ity without  giving  him  the  power  or  the  opportunity 
to  lift  himself  out  of  it.  The  constitutions  of  many 
states  provide  that  all  children  shall  have  a  good 
''common  school"  education.  It  is  impossible  to  sec 
how  reasonable  persons  can  distort  the  words  ''com- 
mon school''  into  "high  school."  My  own  opinion 
is  that  the  child  should  be  educated  in  harmony  witli 
his  probable  occupation  in  his  life.  This  would  mean 
that  along  with  the  common  branches  of  learning 
should  be  incorporated  more  or  less  of  the  manual 
arts.  In  the  country  something  about  farming  should 
be  taught.  In  the  city  more  or  less  of  the  mechanical 
arts  and  commerce  and  with  it  all  much  more  than 
now  a  conception  of  the  obligations  of  the  citizen  of 
a  free  country.  A  good  common  school  education 
should  fit,  and  not  unfit,  a  boy  for  the  world.  The 
whole  world  cannot  live  on  the  intellectual  pursuits. 
In  an  interview  Henry  Ward  Beecher  once  said  to 
me :  "Society  has  got  to  have  a  bottom."  All  of  these 
comments  have  a  direct  bearing  upon  the  proposition 

217 


embraced  in  plank  9  of  Public  Policy's  platform.  I 
do  not  consider  that  the  exclusion  of  boys  from  em- 
ployment at  gainful  pursuits  is,  per  se,  an  assurance 
that  the  boy  will  be  benefited.  The  question  arises,  If 
he  is  excluded,  what  will  he  be  doing?  And,  also, 
the  further  question :  Would  his  proper  employment 
at  the  gainful  pursuit  in  question  actually  unfit  him 
for  those  duties  of  life  for  which  he  is  by  nature  and 
physically  best  adapted? 

PHYSICAL     DEVELOPMENT     AND     EDUCATION     MUST     BE 

PROTECTED. 

All  of  these  considerations  enter  into  a  discussion  of 
the  propositions  embraced  in  plank  9.  I  do  not  un- 
derstand that  anything  I  have  advanced  is  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  underlying  principles  embodied  in  it. 
Broadly  considered,  the  plank  means  that  the  physical 
development  of  the  race,  and  its  proper  education, 
must  be  protected,  and  that  wherever  the  employment 
of  children  in  commerce  and  manufactures  operates 
against  it,  the  law  should  step  in  and  rescue  child- 
hood. 


THE  OPEN  SHOP. 


editorial:  the  wall  street  journal. 


President  Samuel  Gompers  of  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor,  in  his  statement  addressed  to  the  an- 
nual convention  of  the  federation,  deals  interestingly 
with  many  matters  affecting  the  interests  of  labor. 
While  we  may  not  agree  with  many  things  that  he 
says,  we  must  in  fairness  recognize  his  evident  sin- 

218 


cerity  and  honesty  of  purpose,  and  we  are  constrained 
to  express  a  warm  sympathy  with  the  cause  repre- 
sented by  his  federation.  We  have  always  believed 
in  the  principle  of  organization  for  labor,  and  while 
many  of  the  practices  of  organized  labor  have  repre- 
sented a  misapplication  of  the  principle  in  which  we 
believe,  we  must  recognize  the  fact  that,  on  the  whole, 
organized  labor  has  been  a  good  thing  for  the  work- 
ingman  in  the  United  States. 

We  purpose  to  refer  to  only  one  of  the  points  dis- 
cussed by  Mr.  Gompers  in  his  annual  report — ^namely, 
the  question  of  the  "open  shop.''  Mr.  Gompers  claims 
that  organized  labor  has  the  right  to  make  a  collective 
bargain  which  shall  have  an  exclusive  feature,  and  in- 
sists that  a  union  can  properly  make  agreement  with 
an  employer  whereby  the  employer  contracts  to  em- 
ploy no  one  but  members  of  the  union.  He  argues,  in 
fact,  that  what  organized  labor  calls  the  ''union  shop" 
in  no  sense  ''involves  a  denial  of  the  right  of  every 
man  to  sell  his  labor  as  he  may  see  fit,  nor  the  em- 
ployer to  hire  such  labor ;  in  fact,  it  is  a  confirmation  of 
that  right.  Employers  have  the  lawful  right  to  hire 
any  labor  they  may  choose,  but  it  does  not  give  them 
the  right  to  impress  workmen  or  to  enslave  them  or  to 
drag  them  into  a  factory  on  any  terms  the  employer 
may  choose  to  grant  as  an  expression  of  his  kind- 
ness." 

Mr.  Gompers  is  perfectly  right.  We  have  no  quarrel 
whatever  with  this  statement  of  the  case.  But  the 
principle  of  freedom  of  contract  is  the  foundation  of 
the  "union  shop  doctrine,"  as  Mr.  Gompers  states  it, 

219 


and  organized  labor  must  absolutely  concede  in  prac- 
tice as  well  as  in  principle  the  right  of  an  employer  tc» 
hire  non-union  men  at  any  and  at  all  times  if  he  so 
pleases,  just  as  in  cases  where  the  rights  of  the  com- 
munity are  not  involved  the  employer  concedes  the 
right  of  union  labor  to  strike.  What  is  sauce  for  the 
goose  is  sauce  for  the  gander,  and  the  thing  is  as  broad 
as  it  is  long. 

Union  labor  may  rightly  aim  at  closing  the  ''shop" 
by  making  it  to  the  advantage  of  employers  to  deal  only 
with  union  men.  By  this  we  do  not  mean  intimidation 
of  the  employer,  but  we  mean  the  making  of  union 
labor  legitimately  more  attractive,  by  reason  of  its 
greater  efficiency,  than  non-union  labor.  If  union  la- 
bor, having  done  this,  will  keep  the  union  open  to  all 
who  wish  to  join  it  and  obey  its  rules,  no  one  has  just 
cause  for  complaint.  The  thing  that  is  repugnant  to 
fair  play  and  common  sense  on  either  side  of  the  con- 
troversy is  the  establishment  by  force  or  otherwise  of 
a  monopoly.  Exclusive  dealing  per  se  is  not  obnoxious 
to  justice,  but  it  may  readily  become  so  in  practice. 

The  "shop"  must  always  be  "open,"  in  the  sense 
that  every  good  workman  must  have  his  natural  oppor- 
tunity to  work  either  inside  the  union  and  through  the 
union,  or  outside  it.  If  the  "shop"  is  closed  to  non- 
union men,  the  union  must  be  opened  to  every  good 
man  who  wants  to  join  it.  If  the  union  is  closed,  the 
"shop"  must  be  open.  That  seems  to  us  to  be  the 
fundamental  principle  in  the  whole  matter,  and  we  are 
glad  to  see  that  there  is  nothing  in  Mr.  Gompers'  state- 
ment that  is  contrary  thereto. 

220 


AUTHORS    AND    ARTICLES. 


Public  Policy  Editorials:  Page 

A    New    Emancipation     i 

A   Plea  for  Fair   Play  Between  Capital  and   Labor...    ii 

Socialism     Destroys     Prosperity 43 

Who    Are    Responsible  ? 50 

Merit    Labor    Unions 60 

The   Dawn   of   Reason   in   Labor   Problems 69 

Some   Conditions   of   "Joy   in  Labor" 87 

Force   and    Exclusion    Policies    Doomed 93 

Trade    Unionism   in  Public    Employment    Halted loi 

Whose    Fault    Is    This? 102 

That    "Right  of    Contract"   Problem 103 

Why   So   Many    Strikes  ? 113 

Arbitration  vs.    the    Trade    Agreement 139 

Governor    Peabody's   Recital   of   Colorado's  Woes....  153 
Every   Workman    Should  Have   Opportunity   to   Win 

on    His    Merits 170 

Industrial   Wastes  of  Labor   Wars 176 

Mutual    Loyalty     177 

The    Route    to    Trade    Prosperity 183 

Merit    Unions     191 

National    Shop    Regulations 205 

The    Rights    of    Children 212 

New  York  Journal   of  Commerce  Editorials: 

English   and   American   Labor   Unions 2 

Trades    Unions    and    Industrial    Freedom  on    the    Pa- 
cific   Coast    56 

English   L^nions   and    the  Open    Shop 107 

Wall   Street  Journal  Editorials: 

Militant    Stage    of   Trade    Unionism 7 

The   Middle    Ground    in  Labor   Questions 13 

Work :      A    Grand    Ideal 35 

Hatred    of    the    Rich 41 

Enemies   of    Unionism    66 

No    Monopoly    of  Labor 95 

Labor    Strikes    Always    With  Us 117 

The    Open    Shop 218 

Chicago  Chronicle  Editorials: 

Unions    Educating    I'nions    30 

T^abor    Unions    and    Socialism 4S 

Labor's    Interest  in   Law  and  Order 174 


Boston  Transcript   Editorials:  Page 

Australia's    Promise    and    Peril 44 

Colorado's   Evil  Days    84 

A  Feature  of  the  Colorado  Situation  to  be  Em- 
phasized      97 

The   Open   Shop   Issue  Settling  Itself no 

Chicago  Tribune  Editorials: 

John    Mitchell    on    Violence 52 

Employers'    Associations    105 

Chicago  Inter  Ocean  Editorials: 

Limits   to    "the  Closed    Shop" 79 

Chicago   Record-Herald  Editorials: 

The   Crimes   of   Miners   and   Mine   Owners 81 

Ohio  State  Journal  Editorials: 

A  Progressive    Step   in   Unionism 172 

Original  and  Selected  Articles: 

Natural  Checks  to  Labor  Union  Abuses.  By  Hayes 
Robbins    18 

Sensible  Talk   to  Workers 62 

Is  It  the  "Trusts"  or  the  Unions?  By  Hayes  Rob- 
bins    71 

The  Joy  of  Doing  One's  Part.  Address  by  Bishop 
Lawrence    88 

Good-Will  in  Labor  Relations.  Address  by  Presi- 
dent  Eliot   of   Harvard   University 90 

Failure  of  Compulsion.     Address   by   Dean   Hodges. .  96 

Boycott  Against  Employer  Perpetually  Enjoined..  .By 
Judge    John    Hunt 119 

Arbitration,  Conciliation,  Trade  Agreement.  By 
John  R.    Commons    140 

Governor   Peabody's  Defense    155 

Employer  and  Employe  an  Industrial  Unit.  By 
George    Welsh    Weber    180 

Preference    for    Superior    Workmen 187 

Enforcement  of  Law  the  First  Requirement.  By 
George   Welsh    Weber 195 

Peaceable  Settlements  of  Strikers'  Demands.  By 
George    Welsh    Weber 201 

A  National  Shop  Regulation  System  Is  Necessary. 
By   George   Welsh  V/eber    207 

Children  Should  Not  Be  Confined  in  Workshops. 
By  George   Welsh   Weber    214 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


1  liin^SftH^R 

I  jun  Jo^''B 

MA^29- 

300(jt'64SW 

REC'D  LD 

OCT  2  9 '64 -11  AM 

General  Library 
LD  21A-50m-8,'57                                 University  of  California 
(C8481sl0)476B                                                Berkeley 

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